In the wings I keep see(k)ing a
Connection to the young man I
Once was [decades ago] his charm-
Tethered smile, a lineage to the sun

A sardonic mischievousness
Staged in life_nonplussed by
Rapid-fire riffs of Bonham
Or Streep-delivered dialogue –

Quipped by the Reflection of time he
Crosses me downstage to an under-
Standing that I am here because of him
His overage of heart nesting within like a

Sage to millennial reverie unrelenting,
Character of soul lost to a whim
Struck with vision his Thought and mine
Blur-to-clear from the proscenium, now
Catches the Train Of ____, exit stage oblivion.

© K. James Ribble