OF THE OLD (poem by David N. Donihue)

The stern ones we would later appreciate

The soft we would later see as lazy or weak

The angry we would later see as insecure and pathetic

The loving we would later realize the power of their actions

The smart often revealed themselves to be soulless

And the soulless would later reveal how strong we could be in their wake

The rich we only envied after we realized their different sense of freedom

The poor we stopped judging once we lived as them

The religious tore us down

The spiritual helped us separate the faith from it’s fallen propagators

And as we looked up to the old who refused to envy our youth

We feared the old who despised us for our youth

As we knew that they had given up on the future

And our optimism was like a mirror of their chosen defeat

In some cases the old got wiser

In other cases, wisdom had been reinvented by the young

And the lazy become filled with empty formulaic advice

Yet the loving never stopped listening

And those of the old, feel younger than the young