They say to make the most of every day
While youth says, wait, I move to squander years
Youth loathes the dawn, when demons tend to appear
In brown forms, they fly tugging at the scalp

We thought we lived so richly, with no fear
That fed the people eating in the town
I ate alone because I was too hungry
to be full
I was too rich to need a full square meal

Youth left me with an adult appetite
I feel most free to sit at table with all sorts
To sit and talk and laugh and hear the things
That go on in such places of together

Or apart, where the space in breath and hearth
Expand so life won’t fit inside a heart

The features image is “The Prodigal Son in Modern Life, A Fatted Calf” by James Tissot painted in 1882. The original can be found in the National Gallery of Art in Washington,D.C. The work of Tissot (1836-1902) is in the public domain.