Our Fleeting Days - Sonnet 1

--- --- ---

How great to live the fervid fruits of youth

Before we knew of years that seem to fly

Like flower petals drifting. Age exudes

A little less than fervor in the rye.

O fool to dream I was invincible,

Enthroned while wielding immortality

As daggers in my fist! A crucible

The bitter stretch of winters proves to be.

O stained decays of nature! Painful, ill

For older men acknowledging its mark.

And yet I ponder, full and faithful still,

At nothing, mystifying beating hearts.

Fear not the fleeting days that pass us by,

For precious are the ones we spend alive.

--- --- ---

-JDH