Reinvention

poem on love and loss and surviving the loss with the spirit of reinvention.

Don't wait for time.  Time flies fast.
Weary, tired and impatient: cast
your nets on the water far past
the quickly shrinking shore of youth.
By weeks end, wear your new shark tooth
around your neck.  Have yourself a blast.

Come blue skies, go away rain.
String up party lights the same
way you smile past the pain
of surrendering to loss
as you bear the cost
of keeping life's flame.

In your mind, you know you're worth
your mother's pain to give you birth.
Picture yourself wrapped in merry mirth
kissing a model, smiling through a water splash.
Sexy inside, humble outside, you're a smash,
a breaking wave pounding stubborn Earth.

You watch the sliding, ebbing tide
as high strung Christmas lights ride
the soft, whispering breath of waning light.
Dream of the love you made
on the beach where you played.
Take a shuddering breath, crying tonight.

You have come so far, babe
to shed mediocrity's  shade
and own the debts you paid.
Take pride that you have survived
drowning sorrows and have arrived
at your time to be remade.


Copyright(c)John Bartlett Hafford 2007