Nostalgia triggered
By some small thing
(A familiar smell, a familiar environment
Some same old feeling
Swelling within the heart)
Leads to reminiscence
Reminiscence triggered
By nostalgia
(Remembering the time
The place, the people
That were important once upon a time)
Leads to curious inquiry
Inquiry triggered
By reminiscence
(Looking up an old friend
A place you once belonged
A person you once belonged to)
Leads to a bookend.
Sometimes it is easy to find the lost
And sometimes the lost is just lost.
That school building was torn down.
That park was paved over.
A new building erected where a copse of trees once stood.
I once knew a pretty boy who went to college
For a while he was a poet, and then he became an addict.
Some are dead. Some can't be found.
Some have married, matured, mated.
Some are deeply happy, successful.
Some I do not remember enough about to find.
Or never knew enough about.
Some doors in life are shut. Some reopened.
But there are a few
That I have always held on to
(I have held on to you)
(I will hold onto you)