leaving

i feel i lived all my life here
i can't see anything else
on either end
i walked around today
each step a million memories
of so many people
such different times.
i arrived with thoughts
only of leaving
and i will leave with thoughts
only of arriving
the irony
and i know it is time
maybe past time
few of my contemporaries remain
we wave over the young,
unfamiliar faces
surprised to still be here
wondering who is next
to leave the fold.
and i steel myself
against the unfamiliar
of which i have always been afraid
and prepare to leave.