The Airy Fable

CARRY ON TUESDAY

http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com.au/

Asks us to use words taken from this Dickens quote:

"The dreams of childhood - its airy fables, its graceful, beautiful, humane, impossible adornments of the world beyond ; so good to be believed in once, so good to be remembered when outgrown."

THE AIRY FABLE

I'd tell you an airy fable,

Graceful, beautiful, humane,

Good to be remembered

When life goes down the drain.

It's about the dreams of childhood

And the fairy world beyond

When impossible adornments

Came with the wave of a wand.

Once such tales sustained us

But now they are outgrown.

We scarcely can remember

The world that once was known.

I'd tell you an airy fable

So good to be retold.

But it seems that I've forgotten it!

I must be getting old!

*

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THE SANDS OF TIME

The sands of time are slipping through my fingers.

The grains are blowing in the wind each day;

They hover in the air but one small instant

And then, forever, they are blown away.

Some cling to me as sweet or bitter memories,

While others disappear for evermore,

Destined to be part of some great sandscape

On some far distant universal shore.

I clench my fingers tightly; I must stop them,

Retain them, keep them, never let them go,

But fingers weaken with the passing ages,

And, sorrowfully, I must watch them blow.

In youth, I let them scatter willy-nilly;

Their progress into nothingness unheeded;

But now each grain is dancing and delightful,

And oh so very definitely needed.

One day my hands will empty and fall lifeless;

By then I know that I won't even care;

And all my grains of sand will reach the cosmos

And drift around eternally up there.

Till then, each grain is precious as a diamond,

To be fondled and admired for just a while,

I know that it will leave me in an instant,

But, while I can, I'll treasure it and smile.

*