ON THE VERGE OF YEARS

ON THE VERGE OF YEARS

She is just fourteen, and thinks she knows
all there is to know about life, and she shows
it off in an off-hand kind of comment
about the state of the world, and we should lament
these grim times ...
on the verge of years
way beyond her time.

She is twenty-five, not that old at heart
growing up too fast, wants a new start
a chance for a life that works out for a change
finding it hard to leave that fast lane ...
not yet her time ...
on the verge of years
falling back into time.

More than fifty is she, with grey in her hair
two not so young children still in need of her care
but the loneliness that comes in the dead of the night
cannot be filled by children in her sight
sad, sad, times
past the verge of years,
the ending of time.

mebw
© 6/9/13

04.20.12 THIS SPECK OF EARTH

THIS SPECK OF EARTH

I live
this one moment
in time
breathing
this one bit of air
standing
on this one speck
of earth.

One day
I shall be
gone
but the air
will still move
and this one
speck of earth
will remain.



Michelle Balletto-Wooten
© 4/20/12

CAVE DWELLERS

CAVE DWELLERS

They stand,
monuments to time
silent markers
of a rite of passage
about which we humans
know nothing.

They move not,
these guardians of the
the deep earth.
There is no relief
no replacement will come
to revive them.

Formed through
mists and drops
sentinels to a history
which evades the mind
that will not look
beneath the surface.

And they rise.

Michelle Balletto-Wooten
© 8-11-10