let us turn round right

to see with 40/40 vision

What a concept!

to imagine life as a spiral

with soon-to-be 40 turnings,

each turn another year,

each self within you different,

yet also somehow the same,

the view changes,

but the eyes open into a continuity

who has a stubborn sureness of identity,

one who knows and judges

according to its sense of past, 

of present, of its possible futures,

we are made up of an assemblage of developmental selves

who increasingly can see from higher, broader, deeper perspectives,

yet also can forget how sure and deep our earlier selves got it

more than our newer versions might remember,

an 11 year old’s points about love

so sharp they cut true to my 71 year old values,

I hear touches of those revelations of truth

in the recounting of interview after interview,

somehow the multitudes within

combine into who we are, each 

needs to be remembered,

needs to be treasured,

needs to be heard so that we turn round right,

and act with gratitude and love for our moments

and for the self that lives them.

by Henry H. Walker

May 14, ‘19