Span

You don’t know how much you’ve lived.
That’s why your life seems so short.
In fact, it’s vertiginous.

Once in a while, you feel it.
With practice, you’ll feel it more.
Maybe a given morning,

The combination of smells
And noises, the shape of light,
Reminds you of your childhood

Or any time of your life
You don’t think about that much.
Before you let it go, feel

How remote from you that world
Is now. Let it dizzy you
That you were also alive

Then, in that gone existence.
You could almost swoon, the gulf
Yawns so wide. Know what you’ve lived.