When you look back on your life, do you wonder if you were different persons during successive life passages?  While recalling your addled adolescence, can you recite your name without feeling surprised at how ill fitted it is to your history?  Are sepia-toned memories all you keep of learning to ride a bike, understanding fractions, arguments with your parents, your first kiss?  Does your present feel as far removed from your past as it once was from your future?  Have you left behind a light, immortal avatar of yourself perched on a thin branch at the top of a tall tree? 

days i breathed from the treetop
                                    swinging deaf to gravity and
                                  singing slights to minor keys
                        i cared not what i couldn’t do
           and didn’t know how to stop.

                                               
                                               June 2012