August 13 Rare moth sighted after 35 years

When you get to my age it's rare to get out on your own but today is a special day. I'm on my way back from another funeral and Daniel, my son has agreed to let me have a few moments on my own here. We parked at the top and I've walked down to the old playground. The upright supports of the slide look too slender to my adult eyes, built sometime in the seventies when playgrounds were all metal and everyday ended with a graze. The painted layers come off in my fingers, red, blue, yellow and underneath, the dull grey of what I assume is steel, scratched but still standing.

Back then, from the top of the slide you could see right into the old peoples home; the scary sight of our future selves, silent and still in high backed chairs facing a television on a stand. It's hard to reconcile the two ends of our lives, its as if we are different species. 

The swings are gone now and only the central column of the roundabout remains, still standing long after it last served any useful purpose. I've come to find the note we wrote to our selves when we were teenagers. Brendan suggested we leave a marker for the future, to remind us of how it felt to be young, so we wouldn't end our days falling asleep in front of the telly.

I knew the message had long gone as soon as we pulled up outside the park, the whole top section of the slide had been removed, presumably the wood had become unsafe sometime. I can't remember what we wrote, I guess I hoped it would bring me back to who I once was. The camera I've borrowed from Daniel is in my pocket, along with instructions how to use it, I'll take it out now and take a few photos anyway. There's a moth there, it looks sleepy in the day time, this is probably the first moth I've seen in years. Sometimes we need to be reminded of who we are, I guess we chose to go to sleep or wake up. I say my goodbyes to the past and pocket the camera, as I walk back I stand a little straighter, walk a little faster,