Alone Again

Alone Again

For the last

twenty-eight years

I've lived as part

of one couple or another.

So, finding myself alone

after all these years

is kind of a new thing for me

all over again.

I'm re-discovering what it is

to just be me,

and not part of a pair.

This I know---

there is much to learn

and although, like everyone else,

I've been changing

to remain the same through the years,

my experiences over all that time

have re-cast me.

I am not who I was

twenty-eight years ago.

I've learned to not want a lot

of everything, but rather

to want a few things a lot.

Where once I was always

focused on goals,

now, I pay more attention

to traveling and goals

are just part of the scenery

I pass along the way.

Where once my path

was often fenced

by my hopes and fears,

now I find fewer fences

and more unbounded

fields and sky.

I seem to be more me

than I was

in my twenties.

I'm more comfortable

in my skin even though

I've been scarred many times

by hell and high water.

Dewey Dirks