While Watching the Stream Flow Forward...

 Tonight we were out to celebrate my sister-in-law's fortieth birthday...(remember when we thought 40 was old?!;-). My youngest sister remarked to me that she can't imagine one of her boys living far away(I mentioned that Melissa will likely stay in Toronto for the summer because she pays rent whether she is there or not) and I suddenly tasted the full flavor that time insists on seasoning our years with...letting go again and again.

Eventually it becomes a way of life

…this yielding to the forward flow

Of hold-let-go-I-miss-you-so

Where love’s long reach is raw and rife

…with memories when times like these

Were still fear and far, far away

Before the breadth of yesterday

Snared years breath-soft as midnight’s breeze

…and we remember how it was

When we were glad that we could speak

'I love you' close against the cheek

Of those we held and dearly loved

Knowing Time, bent on moment-strife

Opens and closes doors with haste

...we grow accustomed to the taste

That has become a way of life

© Janet Martin