Fabrice B. Poussin

Forever Kid

Another year just went into the annals
of the forgotten basement of a dusty library.

I took it there eager to give it its needed rest
and added one wrinkle or two to show my empathy.

But it is only on the shell my soul has borrowed
as I think of the tricks I will play on its successor.

I have traveled around the fiery star a few times
decades in fact but it seems to mean so little.

While others have left living marks on the earth
little ones just like them and their own.

Here I sit, contemplating the world they made, and I
continue to play with marbles my father bequeathed me.

The challenge grows greater to fit in when the shadows
pass but you forget to acknowledge their weight. 

Child forever, I will be the old man in the city center
joke of the world playing catch with the six graders.

Fabrice B. Poussin is a professor of French and World Literature at Shorter University. His work in poetry and photography has appeared in Kestrel, Symposium, The Chimes, and hundreds of other publications worldwide. Most recently, his collections In Absentia, If I Had a Gun, and Half Past Life were published in 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Silver Bow Publishing.