A Moment In Time

A fleeting moment in time, Is all I need for this rhyme, Perhaps 10 minutes, no more Sit in your armchair, close your eyes, And to your utmost surprise, Your life flashes past like an express train, Happy moments with unimaginable joy, Horribly sad ones, like the day I lost my baby boy. Where does each year go, life is greedy, And definitely always needy, Progress demands youth takes over the reins, What will become of us, Next week you or I are forty, And in a decade we will be fifty, Birthday cards sent to us, Inappropriately witty, You’re on the downhill now sis or bro, You have to settle for second best, Along with all of the rest. You work you slog, but at sixty five You are retired, what to do with each day, Such a drag, but we all love poetry, So we will never be solitary. Soon we will be 3 score year and ten, Our lifetime over, says The Book of Psalms Psalm 90 verse 10, this is an older translation. Today’s verse 10, has been adapted Into many a version. We wonder, how did we become so vulnerable, We reach eighty, And then ninety, We could have dementia, our minds quite muddled The way forward, every day a sad venture, Or we could be arthritic or have Parkinson’s, Chronic pneumonia, had an accident and Broke our back, At this age the cards stack, Against us. One day we can’t breath, rushed to hospital, The family, children and grandchildren abound No regrets, life has been profound, We heave an accepting sigh, As a tear rolls down from our eye, Have we any regrets, is this that Moment in time, you, means all of us, And we and us, means as it does, So you, us and we, Means also my and me. My husband, also sick, whispers, let go My love, I’ll see you soon. He lies next to me, I feel cold, the clock strikes three, It is mid afternoon, Finally, my spirit leaves my spent body, Hovering above my bed, I wish I could tell them hey, stop crying, Life is a journey, And so is dying.