Time has sneaked by me on tip-toe, grinning,

As I was busy doing petty deeds--

Building up walls around me of things, things, things!

All the while, the world was spinning.

I let my wants push by my needs;

Now truth has caught in my eyes like dust, and in my heart it stings.

-----------------------

I recall, from years ago, a friend saying: "The Challenger blew up."

I recall my weeping for human beings I had never met,

Whose fates were determined on an o-ring defect.

How full then seemed my own life's cup!

But though it feels as if those tears were just now shed, still wet,

They dried with many years that since have died;

And with those years, my dreams have wrecked.

-----------------------

Years of opportunities and chances;

Years of multiple alternatives.

Years of time, of life--my time, my life!--years gone.

I did not hear the rapid pace as Shiva dances;

I did not make the best use of the brief hope that time gives.

I did not see the thirsty dusk that drank my dawn.

-----------------------

I cannot call back a single yesterday,

Much less re-live a precious faded year.

I have changed--root, stalk, leaf, and flower--with the time that sped.

My years of youth, with time enough, have skipped away;

My days of hope and possibilities give way to nights of hopeless fear;

My life is drained empty of its best future;

My time shows a deep gash where life has all but bled.

-----------------------

Now, near the summit from which I downward must decline,

I would be better to resolve to stop the bleeding waste--

The untouched treasure of my dwindling days that offer shrinking choices.

Whatever light I have, I must let shine;

Whatever little is left to me of life's great varied feast, I must now taste:

Whatever I would write and speak, I must see to it now--

Or else lose my life and heart among the vanished voices. 

======================= 

Written by Michael LP, aka MLP
aka PoetWithCancer, aka PWC, aka Mr. Poet
Copyright © 2011 by Michael L.P.  All rights reserved