Somehow, one didn't get to know
the real thing.
I have learned this and that,
this or that way, sense nonsense,
backward
of forward,
But somehow, one didn't get to know
the real thing.

Months and years
have passed, just getting to know
the intricacies
of things.
And now, youth is at low tide;
hair gray; teeth loose;
goose pimples invade the body
at the thought.
Only somehow, one didn't get to know
the real thing.

I can't be shameless. But,
if not hurried,
I can make love,
Grammar's under control; the Primer
mastered way back.
I have even learned how to dive
into the blue sea.
And I can even draw water in a bucket
from the well.
There's hardly anything to learn.
A roofer, I can put a roof
over my own head.
I can act the priest and offer worship
to the deity.
As my own mid-wife, I can deliver
my own offspring.
Only how to bury my own dead body
remains unlearned.
Somehow, one didn't get to learn
the real thing.