HOW DID I GET HERE?

FROM THIRTY-FIVE TO SIXTY IN LESS THAN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

HOW DID I GET HERE?

How did I get from there to here?
Where did that youthful woman go?
I only looked away for a moment,
When Life said, "Come go with me."
How did I get here?

When did the curves and firmness melt,

Into bulges and winkles and flab?

When was the moment my energy required,

At least one mid-day nap?

How did I get here?

What turned my young dimpled smile,
Into an old-woman’s perpetual frown?
Who replaced the twinkle in my eye,
With cataracts and a nearsighted squint?
How did I get here?

In my mind’s eye and in my soul,
Things have remained the same.
I still love fluffy white clouds,
And the smell of a Summer rain.
How did I get here?

The ‘me’ I see when I look inside,
Has not changed, aged or died.
She still loves and dreams and hopes
And often wonders out loud,
"How did I get here?"

I’m going on a quest today.
Looking in all the places I know.
To find this woman of thirty-five,
And bring her back here with me.
Except...just where could "here" be?

Written by Norvona Jackson

8/13/06