Poem: The First and Last Hoorah

Time is neither for or against us
Babies are born, old folks fade
A new chapter starts in earnest
A final one wraps up
After conclusions are made

Leaves sprout in spring
And discolour in fall
Drying and curling up
On forest floors
Running shoes
And shopping malls

If we live long enough
We all get youth
Many years in abundance
Then middle age
And a twilight era
Meaningless or
With substance

In spring, forests and gardens come alive
Roaring with passion
In autumn, they go into hibernation
With browns and greys
Pale and ashen

The life of a creature is bound up
In mystery so sweet
Religious founders and philosophers
Have tried for millennia
To explain
The cosmos’ soul
Oh so deep

Cooler temperatures take over
When winter comes a-knocking
Animals store up for the season
As trees stand, shedding
And gawking

We people consider ourselves sages
Masters of heaven and earth
Until astronauts and telescopes
Blow the whistle
On our egocentric
Devaluing net worth

Frost covers one side of leaves
Moss covers tucked in trees
Beetles crawl on trail-side grass
Spitting and shitting on all our
Cost Benefit Analyses

A tiny blue dot in the universe
A micro-second in an eternal timeline
All our hustling, bustling
Accumulating and cajoling
Seems like a joke
To galaxies’
Rhymes unfolding

Think what you like
About the grand scheme of things
Prepare today
For what you guess
Tomorrow will bring

But understand at last
That we are microscopic specks
In myriad Milky Ways
Relish the moment
Now
Before it fades
Into haze

~ Gunnar Våken