BROTHER (part 2)

There comes a time to begin
When we have broken from our knee-skinned ways and found
Our places in the world, when we have found
The reason imparted by our elders. There comes a time
To speak of things we are dispassionate about, and to know things
We would rather not. There comes a time to grow
Up and out and around
The things we knew in younger days
Like summer is hot and green and winter
Is when the school bus is always late; a time to grow
Into suits and cars and houses, into clubs and offices
And other transcendental modes. There comes a time
To forget the blush of ignorance and embrace
The bloom of new understanding. There comes a time
And times come and go and come again with the days
And that too we must learn. As the wealth of this knowledge
Enthralls us, we grow again
Older; out of suits and into bedclothes
Infirm incontinent irritable and deaf
After a while, anyways, and if we�re lucky
The theory holds; between now and then there is time
To listen to the days whisper by and fear
The yesterdays we�ve written away on loan chits or stacked
Away like winter coats. Listen: there comes a time
When we will have forgotten how it felt to be five and scolded, the days
When the world towered above us, the sky blazed
With impossibility, time to remember without fear
The childhood love of fire, the dangerous things
That led us here, where we can talk
Of model rockets and fire balloons, burning bags
And maniacs, gambling and getting caught
Friends and neighbors and how
A dog must think.