Questions at Mid-Life - A poem

Just to prove its not all old poetry here, this is something I wrote very recently ... over the past few days. Hope you enjoy ...

Questions at Mid-Life
by Lyle Bateman
Copyright Apr 2006

What if you got halfway through
writing the book that is your life
and pause to scan the pages gone by?

Would we want to read the details
of lives and loves long ago lived and loved
like a script from a Hollywood film?

Or would we skim over the good parts
and run from the parts that make us wish
we were reading someone else’s life?

What if we come back to our place
blank pages stretched out in front
to we find we have no ink?

Would we leave the remaining pages
crisp, white, clean, empty of our memoirs
devoid of our thoughts and dreams?

Or would we pull down the hang-dry memories
to wring out their dark, thick essence, and let it drip
into our inkwell to write chapters anew?