The Passing

The change, it comes so slowly

Like the winter of our lives,

It encroaches while we’re playing,

While we’re laughing with our wives,

As the children wave goodbye

The first brief chill will still the air,

And that silence settles on us

As they turn, and close the door.

 

Then we stare long at each other

But we find no words to say,

You have been the faithful mother

That I married, back some way,

But I see your smile has faded

With the passing of the years,

And you turn your face away so I

Won’t see that trace of tears.

 

Are you thinking of that moment

When you held that new born child,

Of the joy of those first steps, or of

The day your baby smiled?

And the schooling and the learning

And the knees they brought home skinned,

Or the pride you took each time you watched

That graduation film.

 

While I find my own thoughts turning

To those days before we wed,

To your awesome, breathless beauty

As you passed, and turned my head,

Of that first-time kiss I savoured

Out beneath the apple tree,

When I took you to my heart, and you

First said you wanted me.

 

Now we’re grey, and more like shadows

Since the lust in us has died,

And we rarely touch each other

Since we turned to ash inside,

For the years of work and struggle

Took their toll on you and I,

And I hear you every evening as

You go outside to cry.

 

All those dreams that ended shattered,

All those hopes that turned to tears,

Here we sit, both disillusioned

With the tolling of the years,

And we pass our friends unseeing

As we wander in the street,

We are ghosts, a long time passing

Now our story is complete.

 

We are like the leaves of autumn

That have fallen from the trees,

Blowing through our days unspoken

With each passing, gentle breeze,

We will fade and be forgotten

In the long term way of things,

But we’ll cling in desperation for

What each last moment brings.

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Deborah Brooks-Langford]

David.. wow..another poem that tears my heart out. geezzz I am in those years... this poem means so much to me.. gee can i explain???? how time takes away so much from our lives..from being disillusion to so many tears... wishing we could have love back the way it used to be... wow.. what can I say... GREAT WRITING... I LOVE IT... You just not know how much,.. I am a new fan of yours...

Debbie

[Paul Bell]

That is the whole life package in one.
The passage of time which catches up with us all.
Some can go dancing, join clubs together. Most meet in the shadows.

[Helen Crutchett]

Brilliant David, absolutely brilliant. Such an honest poem that is confronting to read and certainly made me hang on every word, savouring the raw emotions spilling out with bitter sweet pathos. Bravo dear Poet! ~ Helena ~

[MomzillaNC]

My goodness. So eloquently beautiful and sad… to have shared so much and still have lost each other.

[wordwarrior]

Oh my, this is so very beautiful and heartwrenching David. You have written about life in seven verse and missed absolutely nothing. It's all there, the brilliant times, the love, the heartbreak, the acceptance of what life's cycle sends and the raw beauty it also holds.
As always, this is stunning and brought tears to my eyes.
You write with such feeling, one is pulled without hesitation into your world of poetry.

[Mark]

Having been your online friend for some two years now, and having been privileged to share the occasional snippet, I cannot help but wonder to what degree this is autobiographical. Certainly, there is too much sorrow in these latter decades, when the busyness of business has abated, children are departed and grandchildren seem unfathomable, even on the too-rare occasion when you are graced with their presence. Then wonder whether the sadness of one's life having eroded to a featureless plain is worse than never to have had a career, or a prolonged relationship, or a child (let alone a grandchild!); don't answer too fast!

[Bubo]

Oh my ....it is like life passing by in the blink of an eye, the beginnings full of promise and the end of days when all is old and worn.... but so beautifully written and heart breaking in its beauty to read xxx

[Veronica Chandler]

This one reached inside my eyes and pulled the tears out, at first just misty eyed over children waving goodbye, but by the time I reached the end I was all out crying. Such sadness in the thought of love going from ,
"Of that first-time kiss I savoured
Out beneath the apple tree,
When I took you to my heart, and you
First said you wanted me."
to just simply fading away in the end till we are at the place of,
"But we’ll cling in desperation for
What each last moment brings." This is so heartfelt and once again I find myself deeply moved by your words. It is like you have some mystical powers with words.
Exquisite.

[minisla]

Classic stuff. Shattered dreams can cripple a person when life takes them on a different path.

[Barbara Walker]

Love the rhythm and the rhyme. The subject brought a lump to my throat. I suspect this is true of many couples and it is very sad. And for all of us who are aging the words-all those dreams that ended shattered, all those hopes that turned to tears-are painfully true. Even though we have much to be thankful for, sometimes the words, Is this all there is? becomes a loud refrain. Your writing is always beautiful, telling a tale or causing one to smile. This is a bit darker, but oh, so honest and expresses deep thoughts and feelings for many of us. It's sad, but life isn't all happiness, is it? This goes in my favorites.