In Another Time

These children of mine,
They cold call me on the past,
Asking about when I was young,
But nothing comes to mind.
They think I'm lying,
But I'm not.

Not really.

Sometimes situations arise,
Prompting sudden recall,
Buried memories surface,
And I share;

Carefully.

But mostly,
Everything is gone,
Wiped clean.
It was a different lifetime,
I say.
All those experiences that made me,
All those moments that built me,
And nearly killed me,
Happened in another time.
Every time I learned a little more,
About the world,
About myself,
Brought me here,
To you,
I tell them.

They eye me skeptically.
They seem to think I'm hiding something.

But those times seem to be erased,
Or at least eclipsed,
And really,
That is as it should be.
Because,
Now that you are here,
I say,
Nothing means as much as you.

All that transpired,
In a time before you arrived,
Matters not at all.

And it's true.

But of course,
They think I'm lying.

8-30-19