Poem of the Month April 2026

Young Again

I still feel young inside

on my good days

and yet the world

and my mirror

and having to scroll down further and further

to find the year that I was born

remind me

that I am anything but young

you made me feel young

all the laughing

and not giving a damn

what anyone else thinks

and taking life by the reins

and just doing whatever we wanted

as often as humanly possible

I miss that

I miss the me that I was when I was with you

I miss you

and in the missing

I am yearning

for my younger-when-I-was-with-you self

alongside your younger-when-you-were-with-me self

and it is a gripping pain

to face the fact

that I may never feel

that young again

ever

for I love that part of myself

who came out to play

whenever you were around

I want her back

I want you back, too

but I know that is entirely impossible

but my question is this

without you

how can my younger self

my Jenny

come out and live life

with all that laughter

and joy

and joie de vis

again

I want it so bad I can taste it

like a thick slice of watermelon

with the juice running down my chin

and the seeds tucked in my cheek

ready to spit across the yard

I remember the days

when my son was an infant

(and he’s now 30 and newly married)

and he wasn’t sleeping through the night

I was exhausted

and not sure how I could manage

through that time

enduring the days in my sleep-deprived state

sleep-walking through the nights

with seemingly constant interruptions

and I was so tired that I felt old

until I did not

and it was overnight

that the change occurred

and I laughed and smiled again

and we played in the days and

slept hard in the nights

and life was good again

perhaps that will happen again now

and my heart will dance again

in the glow of the fireflies

floating in the gloaming