Back to the Past

Losing just a bit
of advancing stride
in this race with life

need for shifting gears
back into reverse
to slow momentum

eager to set off
in time machine
to repossess the past

alluring vision
of youthful terrain
at high school class reunion

nametags matched
to unfamiliar faces
sculpted by aging

yet fifty years
quickly vanish
in those beholders' gaze.

Flying into Night

Azure, gold, fiery orange
layered like sand art
brilliantly lit
on my west

on my east
impending peaks
shaded in grays
and charcoal black

alternating glimpses
as double visions
soon to disappear
behind the nocturnal curtain.

Career Change

I wish to apply
for flying status
in my hereafter life

ready then
for sky-high adventures
in the third dimension

not as cosmic
or vaporous explorer
with eternal tenure

but sturdier
of broad-wingéd sort
preferably as an eagle

surveying landscapes
from superior perches
riding tall-mountain thermals

if this impossible
any unfilled, wren-or-finch slot
certainly acceptable.