I didn’t realize until this hour,

That youth is bound by brief power:

To chase and seize the fleeting game we’d play—

A dignified vow we’d never admit to say.

In Sun’s golden light, our hearts soared,

Our imagination ablaze, our joy adored.

Through eighteen years, I gave my all,

Tagging friends at summer’s call.

We danced with wild abandon, free,

Yet we couldn’t unlock forever with just our key.

We raced till shadows swallowed light,

Till day gave way to night.

Now bound by time’s tenacious embrace,

Haunted by our shared past that’s locked in a case;

Our days of youth slipped through like sand,

As a grain of grit in our hand.

Our strides go slow, our spirits sore,

Facing truths we can’t ignore.

Then came the day I turned from “it,”

And so our paths began to split.

The past now distant—like a star—

A whisper faint, a memory far.

Now grown, I run a different race,

Chasing moments time can’t replace.

This time I plot with careful thought,

But rules have changed; I’m left untaught.

Today we’re frail; our hands once greedy,

Bones like glass—our steps now weedy.

The game we loved lies out of reach,

Like waves receding from the beach.

So we approach that quiet door,

Where fights and hiding exist no more.

Heaven waits—clear and given—

Oh, how I long for days when living

Was easy laughter—so bright and bold;

Now, time has tagged us—gentle and old.

Yet in my heart, your laughter thrives;

It carves my path where memory survives.