So Soon Strewn Behind

 

This poem 'happened' as I was thinking about my brother-in-law and his wife 

about to hand over the home-farm to their son and wife 

who are excited to become parents soon,

 My brother-in-law will leave the place he has called home all his life,

because he took over the family-farm from his mom (not so very long ago, it seems)

Needless to say, this is a Bittersweet time.

The above photo was taken five years ago at Christmas

as we drove in the laneway,

 knowing doors would be flung open to warmth from the woodstove pouring through,

tables laden with lovingly-prepared favourites, 

and to laughter, so much laughter💗

We had intended to have a final, farewell dinner here this year 

but that didn't happen due to Covid-restrictions.

This wheel-and-deal of daily grind 

This ever forward-flight 

Grants only what we leave behind 

So, hold, but not too tight 

This here-and-now that steals our breath 

With oceanic wave 

Always succumbs to shore-line’s death 

And Bygone’s brimming grave 

The old-farmhouse where once we grew 

And knew love’s finest joys 

Is fondly handed over to 

Tomorrow’s girls and boys 

While we with tear-wreathed fondness gaze 

Across the quickened years 

And wonder at life’s age-old ways 

…how swift time disappears 

For we, in the thick of love’s fight 

Abreast the westward tide 

Often forgot the sacred rite 

That tunes the common stride 

Where moms and dads, not long ago 

Wore winsome threads of youth 

Ah, when did Wisdom’s crown bestow 

The snows of Telling Truth 

How near the yesterday still seems 

When we with star-blind eyes 

Peered through Kaleidoscope of Dreams 

Toward some far-off Prize 

How subtle is the pledge that drives 

Its weightless wedge between 

Hellos always hinged to goodbyes 

What is to what has been 

As we become the meeker ranks 

Of much less understood 

Yet gladder in the humbler thanks 

Of knowing God is good

The measure of a photograph

Though fine and fitly framed

Is always but the aftermath

Of what the Past has claimed

So whether we are young or old

The thing to keep in mind

Is to treasure the moment-gold

That soon is strewn behind

How soft and suave the hours fly

Through living's loving fuss

To fill the framework of a sigh

With memories of Us

© Janet Martin

Psalm 90:12

So teach us to number our days, 

That we may gain a heart of wisdom.