If you now accept
all you once rejected,
you’ll be whole again;

I promise you this —
there are things you forgot
you hated, things

you had forgotten
you loved, and so many things
that fell by the way;

you didn’t make time
to search for them, or time even
to let them sneak in;

you sat there instead
and let them fall beside you
and decay away.

And now? Now that you
have so little time left at the same
time you have it in spades?

You mourn for it all;
at the same time, you’re smiling.
What a dichotomy:

you love what’s missing
and you curse the gods for stealing
away what they stole.

Meanwhile, hibiscus
outside continues to bud
amid a few old blooms.

You see them. You drop
your eyes from the incipient
flowers; you close them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
onward,
T