Echo-Escapades (in the making)

Birthdays have a way of taking us on trips down memory-lane

a pleasure-pain escapade, bittersweet and happy-sad

It makes us stare harder at what fills our frames
Before Time collects its insistent claims

 Victoria sipping tea and drinking in a delicious rainy morning...

 ...before leaving for work

Who can hold back what is waiting to be

Time burgeons like a broad, bud-giddy tree

Moments melt like raindrops strumming the land

Nature surrenders and drinks from God’s hand

Who can return what has slipped through dusk’s door

Dark flannel curtains fall soft, shore to shore

Snuffing with star-studded, mind-boggling deep

All but the echoes that chuckle and weep

Who can secure what is destined to pass

Cherish the verdure that fades like the grass

Treasure each momentous sparkle of air

Savour the brunt of grace with thankful prayer

Who can afford to touch coldly, the cast

Soon turned to markers of permanent past

Seems we are always caught mid-memories

Learning to balance on Time’s Mist-trapeze

Who is immune to the touch of the hand

Tuning the taker to trickles of sand

Grooming even the most brave balladeers

For tender tangos with fond yester-years

© Janet Martin

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