
This has been the way of the world
since atoms first exploded
galaxies unfolded
and light grew
Though I didn’t know it
A baby wails, all red and wet
Seasons roll by, and
she grows from a tiny bud
into a strong tree
Though one day her time will come
The creeping awareness
of my mortality finds me
as I nurse my own child
my mind a whiteout from exhaustion
Maybe I always knew
Time is short, and
death is near
I buried the thought
within the folds of innocence
I have begun, I know,
to peel like the paint from an old boat
I will bind my wisdom
within my thorny heart
hide it from my child
lest idealism fades too soon
She should not yet know
the bittersweet taste I have found
The highs and the lows
of feeling and experience
that make our lives
so full and deep
But I know and I see
in my grandmother’s curled fingers
and the ghosts in her milky eyes
that the sands continue
their unrelenting fall through the hourglass
Lovely, Nillu, and so true. All we can do is make the most of every moment.
Yes xx
It’s been on my mind too, in different ways. This is a beautiful perspective – bittersweet.
Thanks, Rach. Ageing is bittersweet, whatever age, I think x