Raindrops cascade down the leaf
Trails of gleaming orbs left behind
They shine under the bright sky
For just an instant though
Only to get trampled under a thousand others
Here’s one that shows a hazy face
Obscured by years of new memories
That childhood crush, plunged into oblivion
To make a living in the sub-conscious
It gets lost again; for another decade perhaps
Another one takes its place; this one’s different
The sunlight cannot penetrate its watery walls
It’s hiding something, some untold secret
Locked up for ages, begging to be let out
But no, the time has not come, yet
So it gets discarded like a bag full of garbage
The reflections of life continue incessantly
Fleeting past each other, fighting for attention
Not many are lucky, only a rare few
Winning a race at school, graduation
The first kiss, the daughter’s birth
Others are merely empty voids
Just something to fill the enormous capacity
Meaningless faces, experiences, easy to throw away
The remaining are the most troublesome
The ones you try to forget, desperately, in vain
The acts maybe born of impulse
To haunt the rest of one’s life
Through guilt, or just plain remorse
Some people can pretend nothing’s happened
And go on without another thought
Others are cursed with a conscience
They wonder, and they ponder
What could have happened, or not happened
How they could have been different
The curses, burnt into the skin, never to go away
The reflections of life continue ceaselessly
Until we, ourselves, cease to exist
Being grown from a tiny bundle of joy
To a battered and beaten soul
And when we do, yes, when we all do,
The memories vaporize into the clouds
Losing their purpose, for all eternity
Only a mere few are remembered
Or cherished for ages by loved ones
But how many of us are that lucky,
To leave such memories behind?
***