A Song from My Young Days

Our Song, Back Then

We lay side by side
inside a small tent,
so cold we had to cling to one another,

listening to that song,
singing it with voices
almost torn apart.

Yes,
there were days like that.

One of us was leaving for the army
for the very first time.
We lit a fire, sat around it,
looking into each other’s faces.

What was it
that made our words so serious?
So young—
just twenty-something.

I truly thought I was already grown.
But we were only youths
full of secrets,
full of tears.

Someday,
will we gather again in one place
and sing,
just like we did back then?

Friends
who still remember who I was in those days—

To you,
I want to hear again
my own young youth.

*these are my own paintings *