I Knew You Then

I Knew You Then

© 2019 by P Michael Biggs

You look at me and I look back.

That hair, those dark glasses,

wearing a once-favored coat.

I remember when that came along.

It had two pairs of pants,

and a wool tie,

and you thought you were

pretty cool and looked smart.

I laugh because of what I now know

and what I didn’t know back then.

I laugh at the mistakes you are

yet to make,

the attempts at life

you are going to want.

Wish I could sit with you

for a spell.

We would talk about your

important future

and maybe some pitfalls

to be avoided.

Oh my, how young you were back then.

You had fits and spurts of

goals and dreams,

and they were mixed with

angst and self-doubt.

You believed, and yet you doubted.

You had ideas that you just

couldn’t quite put into play.

At times, you were bold as a lion,

and then again, you were timid

and afraid of your own shadow.

If you would have known then

what I know now,

would that really have benefited you?

I think not, for life seems to dictate

that we each learn our own lessons,

we each go to Hard Knocks Academy,

and sometimes that lasts well beyond

eighteen or so years.

Oh yes, I look at your picture,

Phillip Michael Biggs,

as a young and some say “handsome”

18 or 19-year-old.

Handsome. 

I never could embrace that one.

My inner voice wouldn’t let me go there.

I had to grow into whatever

Mother Nature gave me,

and let it happen.

In time, I accepted ME.

In time, I came to

approve of myself.

That’s the great lesson

I would want to give you today.

You are a unique entity,

a person of enormous possibilities.

Embrace the unique and wonderful YOU.

You can do so much, you have so much

that is just waiting to be let out.

Embrace you.

Believe in you.

You’ve only just begun.

Even now, at my age,

I’m still beginning.

A Time for Rhyme Blog Site

Originals by P Michael Biggs