The Passing Poem by David Lewis Paget

The Passing



The change, it comes so slowly
Like the winter of our lives,
It encroaches while we're playing,
While we're laughing with our wives,
As the children wave goodbye
The first brief chill will still the air,
And that silence settles on us
As they turn, and close the door.

Then we stare long at each other
But we find no words to say,
You have been the faithful mother
That I married, back some way,
But I see your smile has faded
With the passing of the years,
And you turn your face away so I
Won't see that trace of tears.

Are you thinking of that moment
When you held that new born child,
Of the joy of those first steps, or of
The day your baby smiled?
And the schooling and the learning
And the knees they brought home skinned,
Or the pride you took each time you watched
That graduation film.

While I find my own thoughts turning
To those days before we wed,
To your awesome, breathless beauty
As you passed, and turned my head,
Of that first-time kiss I savoured
Out beneath the apple tree,
When I took you to my heart, and you
First said you wanted me.

Now we're grey, and more like shadows
Since the lust in us has died,
And we rarely touch each other
Since we turned to ash inside,
For the years of work and struggle
Took their toll on you and I,
And I hear you every evening as
You go outside to cry.

All those dreams that ended shattered,
All those hopes that turned to tears,
Here we sit, both disillusioned
With the tolling of the years,
And we pass our friends unseeing
As we wander in the street,
We are ghosts, a long time passing
Now our story is complete.

We are like the leaves of autumn
That have fallen from the trees,
Blowing through our days unspoken
With each passing, gentle breeze,
We will fade and be forgotten
In the long term way of things,
But we'll cling in desperation for
What each last moment brings.

25 November 2012

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Veeraiyah Subbulakshmi 24 November 2012

wonderful poem on old age! I have seen many of the elderly couples have stopped talking with each other once they are old. Even they started to communicate, they would fight. Old age should be taken as an opportunity to do charity and other activities which involve with people. Sad truth! Well written! This first person should try to talk to the wife, who is in terrible need of help, love and warmth.10

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David Lewis Paget

David Lewis Paget

Nottingham, England/live in Australia
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