Between Sixteen and Sixty-One
Still full of life at sixty-one, you turned and looked up
into my eyes when I touched your shoulder at our old
neighborhood reunion. We lingered in a warm embrace and reminisced about happy times together when we experienced first love at the curious age of sixteen.
I sensed in your inviting smile, your gentle touch, and
your steady gaze that you had loved another well but
longed for something more of life, something intense
and daring, something you felt you had missed.
During those moments, I longed for that something too, and I sensed I had missed it in the life we could have shared during those years between sixteen and sixty-one.
We lingered in a warm embrace once more and said
goodbye before you walked away. If you had been free
to share the rest of your life with me, I would have
chased after you and spoken more freely from my heart.
But know that I will always remember our reunion with sweet frustration, and I will pray during nights to come that in some life we may have yet to live, fate will provide a way for us to discover the joys of life and love we could have shared during those years between sixteen and sixty-one.
Copyright © 1998 Frank Zahn. Published in Alive with Thoughts and Feelings: Prose and Other Poetry, Vancouver Books (Hardcover Edition) 2009; Midwest Literary Magazine October 2010, p. 142; Alive: Short Prose and Poetry, Vancouver Books (Kindle Edition) 2020; Adelaide Literary Magazine, Number 80, September 2025, https://adelaidemagazine.org/between-sixteen-and-sixty-one.