One Life

In my living years, there came this time,
Where spring has faded like a memory,
Summer's blossoms withered like old skin,
When ever fell the leaves, fell the leaves,
And the augur bells faintly distant chimed.

One day, a stinging breeze in mine eyes pining,
A whispering air—'tis wisdom sweet sad song —
A solemn hymn: "Let goods and kindred go." (1) 
A learning to love as if nothing were my own,
A bending of the will, to autumnal days aligning. 

These stringent days swallow my threadbare soul,
And as the hours gyre the paths that I will take,
Shadows ebb and flow about my wicker frame,
Skin and breath — compass every grace and curse,
The cloth where lament and love make up the whole.

In these waning times, there will be gift of days,
When every kindness is free of fitful grasps.
Life — where love is given and not expected back.
A dying unto living, a journey to places never seen,
'Til broken hearts be overtaken in psalms of praise.
 
One life.





_________
1) From Martin Luther's hymn: A Mighty Fortress is Our God