Old Pair Go Walking.

Cast upon the sunlit pavement

they see, awaking to the magic,

their short shadows go before them,

like children in a children's book,

innocent silhouettes, arm in arm,

bent on some fresh adventure,

the girl revealed by her breeze-blown hair,

the boy by the more sculpted head,

both without a single line or blemish

and, what's more, both free of any care,

serene, as all shadows are serene,

being substanceless, safe from injury,

quite unacquainted with pain.

Thus, touched by the playfulness of light,

even an old couple like this one,

their faces really far from smooth,

their bodies too rusty for, say, skipping,

may glimpse, may feel, for a spell at least,

something of their childhood selves,

if somewhat dreamlike, somewhat ideal.