Declining Powers

I used to write these things like Post-it notes,
offhanded, effortless, with perfect rhyme
and subtle references to obscure quotes
that link to lives lived out in other times

when we wore other bodies, other names.
when nothing of us was as now we seem
and yet we loved each other just the same
while passing life to life as dream to dream.

I once could catch those days in words as sweet
and vivid as the days and nights were long
I sat at crossroads where the ages meet,
saw other times and wove them into song.

I wish I had the power still to do
as well, the poems I do for love of you.

©WILLIAM JOHN WATKINS