Future present is how you spend
your days – dreaming of wild places,
of beaches and forests; of mountains and rivers,
of castles once ancient and proud – places
once travelled, no more.
Future past is how you spend
your days – looking through old photographs
where images in black and white,
mark the freedom you took for granted – that summer
by the links learning to swim, remembering
the cold, the waves and the sea.
Future now is dreaming
of places where only the wild things go –
where hare and roe roam freely
and the eagle is king; where the mountain
still stands and waits for you – when all will be changed.
Future tomorrow is a dream deferred,
absent days spent watching the birds –
your little garden, a wilderness of space,
belongs to them now. You watch as their wings
take flight, and can only dream where they go,
hoping one day to follow.