Thursday, July 19, 2012

Almost Eighteen



It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen
When other pastures are fairer and greener
Than the row that you were given to hoe
It isn’t easy
Being almost-eighteen…
I know

It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen
So many unknowns remaining to be seen
So many doors all seemly barred
So many decisions
And all of them
Hard

It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen
Uncertain of how far or how fearless to dream
As fantasy and reality
Wage debate
Each hovering beyond
The garden gate

It isn’t easy being almost-eighteen
Realizing that life is not ‘but a dream’
And rowing your boat against life’s stiff tide
Is anything but
A ‘merrily, merrily’
Ride

But darling, I’m not sure if any of us really ‘knows’
One foot then the other, that’s the way life goes
No one can see
The next line, the next page
And life is a faith-leap
No matter our age

…and darling, it isn’t easy being forty-six
Swiftly, so swiftly life’s impatient clock ticks
I hold and I reach, I trust and I pray
I learn while I teach
and feel you slipping
away

It isn’t easy, so all we can do
Is ask God day by day to gently lead us through
Whether we are eighteen
Or forty-five
Time is a hungry foe that licks
Away our lives

© Janet Martin


2 comments:

  1. Love the imagery here...
    Time IS a hungry foe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. indeed...even the kids were lamenting yesterday that summer is passing WAY too quickly! I thought when I was 11 summer lasted forever! Maybe it had something to do with being in a big family where a big garden brought lots of weeding and work:)

    ReplyDelete

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