One day I was walking
I heard my best friend talking
But I wasn’t listening
Caught in my own world
Of the flowers in the morning air
Until the words “Life doesn’t wait”
Nestled in my ear
A little bird whispering triumph
To a hibernating bear
I don’t know where they came from
I didn’t really care
My mind awoke in an explosion
Soil and dirt erupting from the cave
As I dug myself from my hiding spot
And suddenly it was all clear
The glistening dewdrops
Diamonds in the sun
Gemstones in the gardens
And the bonfire above
Emerald-leaved oak trees
Waved gladly in the breeze
Which tousled my hair friendlily
And hummed a little tune
I couldn’t stop just staring
At the fantasy galore
And my friend kept on walking
Not seeing what I saw
I tried to show it to him
But he wouldn’t meet my eye
He just continued talking
About girls and Facebook posts
But angelic choirs sang their praises
To the deity above
Their jeweled words climbed gold stairs
Through the candy-floss clouds
And maybe it was that deity beyond those stairs
Who showed me this world
That deity wanted someone to see
And explore what he had made
But no matter who had whispered to me
I was glad that they had
For around me was a whole new place
A place calling out to me
And saying,
“Live your life remembering
How short this is to you:
In a few months this will shrivel
Don’t let your life go, too;
You’re not a fading flower
Covered with a drying dew...
So follow all your passions,
The many or the few,
For life’s not just surviving--
To yourself alone be true.”