We Seek In Tears The Passage Of Our Years

we seek in tears the passage of our years
recalling when the journey was young
and we set out almost without knowing we had

incapable of thinking...
how the decades flew, would flow would
stop and start would seem at an end

and then, a rose bloom hour, at a new crossroads.
how golden was the time when we were
floating as clouds above the landscapes,

with every tremulous step in the Easter grass
full of dreams, as hazy as sunlight beams
almost with no past like fresh linen snow

and full of delight, you know, so apple bright
at every new thing learned.
how is it possible we murmur now

in the same voice as our elders
we couldn't understand back then
that time has seemed a lifetime contracted

in one minute. a pure thimble's worth.
now we are in it too
looking back on all that we passed through

wondering why it is
when we are young
and just so cherry velvet spun and spinning

we lack even though there are so many witnesses
to the fact that tell us so
the awareness that we are on some track

here on earth that will run out for us at last
when we clasp the winnowing hand of God...
over that shining threshold, as the others have

for one final graduation day, sans the corsage.
each must find only in their own time
on a certain day in their own way

that finally it is, it has become
too late to go back through those gates
and start again so we pretend

there's more time than we think
and maybe there is,
while singing over the dishes bubbling

in the sink

though we are on the brink

with every leaf that falls
with every wind that sighs
and then is stilled

whether we will it so
or not.

mary angela douglas 16 february 2019/