Forgetting

The familiar face and form, slight and elegant. I hold you close, let the years fly behind us. Forgiving the past, just holding you, allowing the new day in. My mother's frail. I wonder where the years have gone. So many lives have passed and children grown. Your busy life with love and art has gone. You know my face, your eyes are bright but you have forgotten so much. Confusion rises in your face. Repeated statements not retained. Laughing we talk about the past and walk through lanes of Autumn leaves, hear the rooks cry out above us in the trees. We wander arm in arm through country fields. The golds and reds and browns float slowly down in Autumn's shedding slow cascade. Another season gone, another slow decay. The colours rise, light up your eyes, admiring beauty in the trees; an artist still. The portraits of your life surround you now. The love is there and sorrow too. So much to say if I could only find the words. I cannot stay, but when I leave I'll hold you close. Snapshots of memory, ghosts of the past. The colours of childhood come to meet us on the path. With laughter we hold each other close, no time for tears. Remembering you now across the miles and, although the distances are vast, I let my heart fly free to be with you; no longer a prisoner of the past.