Did I Invent Despair Poem by Barry Middleton

did I invent despair
clouded memories are such
that I cannot recall

did I invent my youth
a boy playing in the woods
who now is dead and gone

the old white farmhouse
and the green creek
no longer exist for me

I must wonder of reality
of a thousand foggy visions
love and loss and tears

did I invent yesterday
and was it all a dream
dissolving in nighttime mist

and is the death I fear
an unreal and ghostly door
to gardens beyond the sky

or will I close my eyes
to only dream again
of reinventing yesterday