Kurt R.A. Giambastiani

to these old eyes
we none of us have aged
and all are as when first we met

though days and years
and decades all
have trundled past our feast

though unforgiving fate
has called a few away
and left their seats unfilled

and loft-bound bitterness
and joy have played for us
their varied minstrel tunes

it’s just the failing candlelight
that limns us each
in haloed wisps of age

for if I squint I once again
can see us clear and bright
with vibrant youth

all straining ‘gainst the slips
and hungry soon
to master dreamed-of hopes

so charge your glass
and be upstanding so
that we may raise a toast

to all we’ve known
and all we’ve loved
and all that yet remains ahead

for life with all its sorrowed pain
is better lived than not
and better still
with friends beside