Still, Beneath Us...

Time slips beneath our feet like a dream

Summer is caught like a leaf on its stream

Sun-sparkle diamonds on five-o clock blue

Spills silver starlight like dawn spills its dew

Shimmering, glimmering mist-belvedere

Flowers and children bloom then disappear

Breath-stealing, beautiful, bantering beast

Washing our eyes with the crumbs of its feast

Morning melts over midnight like a sea

Surging above us in mute urgency

Fingers may linger but never can keep

More than a mem’ry from its moment-sweep  

It is no fable; too soon we are old

Fall spreads its table with garnet and gold

Once we wished wishes against supple skin

Now we carve niches like footholds within

While still beneath us time’s river runs wild

Testing the mother and teasing the child

© Janet Martin