Slipping Away
It is all passing
Away, slipping
Through fingers
Like gossamer threads
Binding life to life.
The kindness and the scorn,
The boredom and the passion.
The joy of a young daughter’s
Laughter replaced by the tears
Of a strong woman’s anguish.
It is no secret that scarcity
Creates value as the light drains
Away from another lover’s eyes
Replaced by the shadows
Of a hundred old wounds.
Generosity gives way to
Callousness as if the loss
Of sweet delicious intimacy
Were not punishment enough.
The refugee fleeing the horrors
Of persecution has her child
Torn from her arms at her most
Vulnerable, impossibly exposed
Helplessly lamenting the death
Of compassion, the self destruction
Of Humanity. Of course cruelty
And grief aren’t new and yet
somehow hearts break
As if for the first time
Again and again
As eyes spill over their banks
Washing away composure
While this precious life continues
To slip away.
Scott DuRoff 7/2018
It is all passing
Away, slipping
Through fingers
Like gossamer threads
Binding life to life.
The kindness and the scorn,
The boredom and the passion.
The joy of a young daughter’s
Laughter replaced by the tears
Of a strong woman’s anguish.
It is no secret that scarcity
Creates value as the light drains
Away from another lover’s eyes
Replaced by the shadows
Of a hundred old wounds.
Generosity gives way to
Callousness as if the loss
Of sweet delicious intimacy
Were not punishment enough.
The refugee fleeing the horrors
Of persecution has her child
Torn from her arms at her most
Vulnerable, impossibly exposed
Helplessly lamenting the death
Of compassion, the self destruction
Of Humanity. Of course cruelty
And grief aren’t new and yet
somehow hearts break
As if for the first time
Again and again
As eyes spill over their banks
Washing away composure
While this precious life continues
To slip away.
Scott DuRoff 7/2018
