Retirement Home

It isn’t much, this house,

small enough to retire to,

just a few rooms, multi-purposed,

the boundaries breached by the moment

and by the company we’re keeping:

a rotating crowd of family,

kids and grandkids, traipsing through,

dropping their towels and leaving the lake

behind in their footprints, the path well-worn

from door to door, front to back

and back again; and friends,

a warm fire in its place,

and warmed ourselves by a glass of wine

and good conversation, old friends remembering,

remembering old friends, still full of life

and expectations for the days ahead,

even as the sun sets, turning the room

to red and our memories to gold.