A Cure for Nostalgia

author’s note:

If I hear myself saying, “When I was a child”, I bite my tongue.

It’s nearly pulp now.


A CURE FOR NOSTALGIA

With this growth
I feel I’m losing myself.
Sometimes I become nostalgic
thinking of the one I’ve been.
The new person
coming into being
often feels alien to me--
I’m reminded of movies
where aliens take control
of human bodies.
I do indeed feel a small pod
down inside and rising up--
slowly opening
as the petals peel apart
in the dark.

Recently
I again felt the impulse
to impede its progress
but then I happened to hear
the familiar refrain:

“when I was a child...”

which according to the speaker
was a better time--
a better way of life.

Well, maybe for him
I said to myself
but not for me.

As I then recalled
the beleaguered child I’d been
my sigh blew the dust
of nostalgia away
and again I clearly saw
the beleaguered adult
that child became.

So once again, I told the pod:
hurry up, hurry up.

Dancing to Raven’s Song: a novel
© 2021, Michael R. Patton