the inbetween years

the young man

when I met him was tall
slender
black as onyx.

with flashing eyes.
new to the job,

his first day. nervously
happy
to have work.

sharp in his uniform,
full of youth
and ambition.

but so
much time

has gone by since that day
when
I shook his hand.

thirty years, since we

made friends. told him
the routine
of his
new

life. and seeing him now,
middle aged,
heavy, three children

a second wife,

and burdened makes me
wonder of
the in between years,

as he must wonder about mine.