i went for a walk and as i went (revisited)

i went for a walk today and as i went
by a path so familiar, i paused delightfully content
to lift my hat and warmly wave to a faraway friend.
when this i did, suddenly came frostily a wind…
brushing my face with icy strokes to bestow
a memory long since sealed thirty years ago…

it was only then the wind did send
a thought of that day quite identical to when
i went for a walk as a young man then and
lifted my hat, extending high my hand
just to nighly wave to a friend i saw
standing outside time’s limitless law…

it was not the memory of the familiar then,
which made me feel so strange to lift my hat;
rather, it was the me of yesteryear that
appeared so utterly, wholly avowed.
like the long lost twin of the me of the now,
the wind brought fresh the smell of the then…

i went for a walk today and as i went
by a path so familiar, i realized blissfully content
that the who i was is the same as who i became.
‘tis true most people cling to such old familiarities,
anchored in the deepest, deep of their profundities,
reminding us all we are and always will be the very same.