Your Best Years

For anyone standing in the middle of their best years

I was scrolling through my phone
when an old man told me
he was jealous of anyone
with kids still at home.

Not the awards.
Not the status.
Not the work.
The making of school lunches.
The endless drop-offs.
The ordinary Wednesday
where I can't find one minute,
one small thing for myself.

I put my phone down
and listened to the house —
the noise of it,
the mess of it,
two boys under five
leaping through the days
I keep wishing to end.

Somewhere an older version of me
is already missing this.

I can't quite see it yet.
But I'm trying.