Where Are You?

Where are you? It seems like yesterday that you were beside me. You walked with me that first day of school when the sunlight shone through my mother’s summer dress and the future seemed boundless. You stood next to me, sweaty in cap and gown at my graduation and, resume memorized word for fecklessly inflated word, at my first job interview, assuring me that yes, I can do this. You held my hand as one by one my father and mother flew off with the angels. You gave me strength through love affairs and their inevitable conclusions. You were the wind that caught my feet and sent me flying through marathon races just to prove I could. You were the voice that told me it was time for retirement, time for myself. But now after all these years you’ve left me to my own faulty devices. Youth, where did you go? Where are you?