The beginning of a story

Once it began, it began for good

an irrevocable story

of friendships, of a marriage that lasted

and lasts still to this day

peering from the eyes of my children.

There has been an excuse made!

an attempt at an excuse,

to not move continually onward and upward,

to not apply myself, happily

within my wealth

but today I feel the cost of their decades

lived as well as could be

the sensation is open to interpretation

but the white wall around the family home

in my memory shoos me on and on

I lift my head high

their tombstone is black and faces the sky

and now that frozen moment of youth,

the beginnings of Truth,

their smiles, a maternal reminder –

‘live well, child

you have only this one, quick life’. 

By Shona Cole