What do you mean it's gone?

When did it Become the Past?

How can it slip away without you knowing?
Like the image of your face, or your daily routine,
It seems to be the solid backdrop to
All that is common in your act -
Look at it now and know that it will slide away;
It always does. The cereal bowl you always used,
The paper that stood by you every morning with
The box scores, financial news, cartoons, whatever -
They used to be something that you looked forward to,
A constant regular part of your day, your everyday;
Just like the evening TV show you always watched;
What was it: Ninja Turtles, CSI, My Three Sons, Friends?
And your tight group of friends; always going everywhere together,
Til one day not- as gone as the face of that clock that used to wake you -
Now as absent as the warm indentation in the bed next to yours or the
Neverending needs of your kids, the demands of your parents -
All gone, in the past now. It went around the present's
Corner when today's clouds cast their shadows -
Somehow that one got away and then the next - gone too.
The names, the faces, the touches, the seeming solidity
Of them all - in your life - like recess or merry-go-rounds.
Now they surface through other's questions and from
Unexpected pools you catch yourself looking into
When you slip and look down from time to time and see
The vanity of lost desires and late night regrets - all gone now
Like pictures in your attic that you look at when you clean,
Or landscapes you now pass on trips back home -
Still there, but now - only in passing.

---- Big Frank Dickinson