Advancing Questions

Advancing Questions

When did the boy
who revelled
in barroom adulation
(knowing he could
choose any man there)
join the ranks
of the envious hopeful?

When did the youth
who spent languorous
Sunday mornings
(in the arms
of new lovers)
descend into the man
engrossed in the Sunday Times?

How is it that the
joyful, immature,
rebellious lad,
(who came out,
stayed out)
became outstayed
and staid?

Why did it have
to become clear
to the man
that forty,
that fabled milestone,
marks the point
of no return?

Dave Randall?
May 2000