Blades of Grass or Caught Off Guard

The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; Ps.103:15

We harbour secret sorrows in hollows of skin and bone

And know, in spite of loneliness, that we are not alone

The God who grants the loveliness of seasons is our Stay

And He will never leave us love-forsaken on life’s way

We cup-cup-cup the up-up-up and lay-me-down to sleep

And love-love-love and learn-learn-learn how little we can keep

As day-to-day becomes the way that winds through retrospect

And we are always here, where past and future intersect

We cannot turn back Time or leap ahead of its decree

And what waits to unfold is more than anyone can see

As by-and by slips through this sigh-and-why afflicted dust

While time takes time to try us with new, untried ways to trust

A bell tolls in each blossom where the souls of people pass

To loll or stroll beneath the bough that shades these ‘blades of grass’

Where soon-soon-soon April-May-June will dip to history

As on the brink of eons we make small talk and sip tea

…and say, (as if we just discovered a phenomenon)

How swift the day that slips away, how quick a year is gone

Then pray the Lord our souls to keep and we to keep His word

Lest death should call when we think not, and we are caught of guard

© Janet Martin