<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Old Man, Old Man<div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Young men, not knowing what to remember,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Come to this hiding place of the moons and years,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">To this Old Man. Old Man, they say, where should we go?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Where did you find what you remember? Was it perched in a tree?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Did it hover deep in the white water? Was it covered over</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">With dead stalks in the grass? Will we taste it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">If our mouths have long lain empty?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Will we feel it between our eyes if we face the wind</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">All night, and turn the color of earth?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">If we lie down in the rain, can we remember sunlight?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">He answers, I have become the best and worst I dreamed.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">When I move my feet, the ground moves under them.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">When I lie down, I fit the earth too well.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Stones long underwater will burst in the fire, but stones</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Long in the sun and under the dry night</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Will ring when you strike them. Or break in two.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">There were always many places to beg for answers:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Now the places themselves have come in close to be told.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">I have called even my voice in close to whisper with it:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Every secret is as near as your fingers.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">If your heart stutters with pain and hope,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; ">Bend forward over it like a man at a small campfire.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 19px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- David Wagoner</div></body></html>