Two Shall Become One Poetry Contest

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(To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
Emily Dickinson)

Think of what it takes to live.
Just maintaining the complicated machinery
of the body tires one out,
and yet the soul effortlessly dreams of flying.

To the child’s senses life is so startling,
the young body flying headlong
in pursuit of everything.
Until caught, almost unaware, by dreaming sleep.

We grow up to work and it leaves few moments
for chasing those youthful dreams.
The years leap by as we trudge along,
new experiences erased by memory.

Finally we’re left with little time,
it is a commodity we cannot replenish,
and yet it is still the timeless soul of a child looking out
through those wrinkled eyes.

Duty has left our bodies too tired for anything else
but a well-deserved rest, a nap on the porch.
Then let the soul practice soaring ‘til the day
we fly away upon an endless dream.




Dale Arthur