In a span of a night

I saw things I should not have

When I was five and a half years old

That night when I went to bed

as a

six year old

I hoped and prayed with my eyes squeezed shut

that what I just saw was a nightmare

and If it wasn’t I was never to wake up again

and then the next morning

I woke up

as a sixty year old

who could not see the point

of life