The Afterglow

   I used to watch a star at night

Far and high it lived, so bright

Burned through the black till the sky was light

But that was years ago

Where did that little light go?

  And oh the coloured trees

All the fearsome autumn leaves

And that one cold day in weather grey

I danced circles in the snow

But that was years ago

Where did the seasons go?

  Memories …

They pour over my soul like a flood

Like flashes of a summer’s night,

Jasmine, sweet and moonlit white

I breathe in reverence along with the scent

Here for a moment and then

Concluded forever, gone again

  How is it then that the more I learn

The less I feel I know?

And the less I remember how to dance

Circles in the snow

And the more I stand anywhere I can

Pining for places to go

The diminished returns of days spent yearning

For what I’d had in the snow

  And off to sea on a paper boat sweet

I watched my younger years go

And gone like the star is the moment

But eternal the afterglow

  And like that fading flower scent

So are the hours of years I’ve spent

Distant as stars I could not collect

But eternal because I can never forget

Eternal the afterglow