Inexorable Entitlements...

The bitter and the sweet compete; oh, why must it be so

To hold is to suffer love’s precious pangs of letting go

Today is always placed over echoes and weathered treads

And joy is always interlaced with sorrow’s tender threads

To recognize and prize the highs we must undergo lows

And brace ourselves, where fond goodbyes follow happy hellos

The good against the ill is always finely juxtaposed

And oft night’s soft silences spill with what day’s noise composed 

The flower is the preface to shower of petals felled

The present is always the place where past and future meld

The flight to getting older soldered to laughter and tears

Regret's gut-wrenching gutters and triumph's capstone of cheers

The loveliness and ugliness of bare matters of fact

Kindles heartache and happiness; both never left intact

Where the longer we live the less it seems we truly know

And all we keep is what we give; oh, why must it be so

© Janet Martin