All That’s Left

By PD Lyons

 

Dust in the corners

Pale light, loose boards,

Soft paper pages partially filled.

 

So small

The world with all its bigness

Could have so easily passed by.

 

Will we, all of us, leave the same absence,

Know the same impossible loneliness?

As if somehow shared, we could know one another.

 

Each child then, free with their mothers,

Hand in hand,

Fussing over any small thing.

 

We have all touched this world with little fingers, as have I.

Certain of my own sense of purpose.

Afraid, so many things bigger than me,

So many things I could not wait to do.

How long does it take to be grown up?

 

Unlike you, I do know the story’s end.

Unlike you, I could not choose to not know.

Remember me this way:

Small as I was, it all fit into my life.

 

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Cover photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash