the future

by chance
i run into someone
on the street that i used to know.
we're older
now.
not wiser, just older,
pretending to be so.
we make the same
mistakes over and over
again, we say to one another.
we're freaking moses
in the desert.
forty years of wrong
turns,
miscalculations.
mirages.
heat and cold.
lack of food, lack of
drink.
lack of love.
we reminisce about the good
old days.
back when.
back when we had hair,
back when our skin was smooth,
and our knees
and hips didn't hurt,
causing us to limp through
the dry sand.
it was before everything,
almost.
before wives and children,
jobs
and mortgages, bills, bills
bills,
and yards to tend to.
what fun we had.
we wondered how we landed here.
we wondered
under the yellow sky of a
low blistering sun.
we stared at one another
and hugged, shook hands.
kissed each other on the cheek,
and then realized together
without having to say it,
that the future is not
what it used to be.