Redemption’s Beautiful, Remember

Redemption’s Beautiful, Remember

I wonder what the years will do to today
Take it and shrink it
Shred it and fade it, peel it, tone it down
Today can never be brighter or more glorious
Than she is in her now
The slow fade comes in the looking back
Over shoulders and in glass, in memoir
And in remembering
Reflecting, recalling
Reaching back into archives of the mind and of memory

So I will hold today up to the light and make it
Tell the truth to me
Beg it to be generous in its gifting of itself to me
Beg it to show me details wrought in sharp hues
And bright shades of this moment
Desperate for every ounce of pleasure I can squeeze
From it, from sunup to down
Draining it of all joy and grace
A woman starved for beauty
As if the sun would never shine again
As if it hasn’t in a decade now

The dark and dormant winter
Has been asked to retire
And we usher in, on a red carpet, rolled out
For the now and today
Fit for Kings and stars and starlets

The belle of the ball
She is today, dressed in her finery
Her seconds of fame and glory
Ticking away as she spins and spends
Herself

And I
Recording
Knowing that the clearest
She will ever be
Is before me now
Tomorrow and the day after
Bring me a dimmer version
Missing pieces
Forgotten parts
Losing memory of herself
Losing detail and sharp lines
Blurring the focus of what it is
As it becomes what it never was

And I may not even remember
Today
Tomorrow
Oh the pain of a fading
Past
The currency of the current
Spend it wisely
Record it as a wise man would
Regret robs today, regret robs tomorrow
Regret stole some of yesterday
I wonder what the years will do to today
Redemption revises
Restores
And today is beautiful again.

Joining Deidra and Sandy and Laura