Impermanence

In youth, the world feels wide and firm,
A blanket warm, of no fixed term.
A goal once scored, a test once passed,
Give reputations that seem to last.
We think the world is carved forever,
But even hardest stone can weather.
Each toy, each room, each loving face
Feels like a fixed and sacred place.

 But slowly, cracks begin to show:
The things we love begin to go.
The blanket frays, the toy is torn,
The house abandoned, dreams outworn.
We learn to move, to not hold tight,
To chase new dawns and leave the night
Achievements fade, they do not stay;
What mattered once flows swift away.

 The friends we knew drift out of view,
And rust creeps in on hobbies too.
The body speaks in aches and pains,
A wart, a wrinkle, weathered strains.
The mirror shows a stranger’s face,
Time’s quiet theft we can’t replace. 

The fields we roamed are homes today,
Where other children laugh and play.
Their world is new, but soon they’ll find
It too will vanish, left behind.
We hoped to change the world, and tried,
But dreams like ours have often died:
The young now hold that hopeful flame;
They’ll fail, like us, and feel the same. 

All things must pass, and none endure:
Not joy, nor youth, nor love held pure.
Love fades in chores and compromise,
In sleepless nights and silent sighs.
Two hearts once one now beat apart,
Routine erodes the tender start.
Planning meals and buying clothing
Drains our feelings into nothing. 

We learn not to believe the lie
That joy will last and never die.
We age, we bend, we break, we fall
And in the end, we lose it all.
We craft with care a short-lived shell,
Designed to crack, designed to sell.
Made to break, not made to last
Each plastic thing replaced so fast.
They sang with hope, “Change is gonna come,”
But rot set in and made us numb.
The only change we’ve ever known
Is time’s slow grind through flesh and bone. 

We tell the young, “It’s yours to fix,”
But time plays cruel and clever tricks.
They’ll chase the dream, as once did we,
Blind to cost, too proud to see.
When they learn what we have known,
The seeds they sowed are overgrown.
The soil reclaims what once stood tall,
Whether flower, tree or crumbling wall,
Love and hate, fear or trust:
dreams dissolve to ash and dust. 

Hope and glory are flames then embers
Fleeting passions none now remembers
The stars look on, but never speak,
The silence grows; strength turns weak
No final stand, no valiant fight,
Just my rage at the dying light.
We could face our impermanence,
The world’s intrinsic heartlessness,
But life is short, attentions wander
Brief opportunity is squandered.
The heat of youth now a diamond core,
Hardened, cold, alive no more
The fight was lost before it came,
Rules were rigged, results prearranged.
Now apathy and grief remain:
I used to care but things have changed.
Brief sparks of joy, moments of pain:
We are but motes in endless rain.