Shelf Life

Do what you want with me
Run fast and hard
or slow and steady
I will be keeping father time so that you might forget
Then you won’t have to furiously count the seconds but marvel at the now
Leave the stars and galaxies in the sky not under the ground
Don’t grit your teeth, don’t try to understand
You are this precise moment walking parallel lines
Alongside father time and Mother Earth
Precious and unforgiving
so live it well with lots of love and laughter
Don’t worry too much about others
All that stuff that weights you down
Let the tears drip drop
Let them cascade down your cheeks when you are overwhelmed
Falling onto the outstretched hands of your most precious
All the familiar and bizarre funny faces
The magnetic pull of a desire and loneliness
The human connection
Of loved ones and kind strangers you’ll meet
There’s no shame in needing to belong
when strife and sadness fill your body with lead poison
Remember
The past has already come and long gone
don’t worry too much, little darlin’
Don’t fret
Close your eyes and sit with the sad silence instead
It’s just a life, just the one
Where you shoot down the birthing canal with a freewheeling, floating, cone shaped, joker’s head
Carrying smoke signals down the neck
Into veins and muscles and cracking bones
It’s yours though for a brief minute
This bizarre and curious and spiteful and hysterical life
Infinite Jest
When happy returns and sneaks up on you disguised as tasty, magic memories
Be ready
In guaranteed good time you’ll find a hint of a smile behind a teary eye
Again and again
Emotions don’t exist on a timetable
May the lessons and the love fill your heart, and freeze frame your mind
Stalled inside the golden hour of a breath
We are nature’s purest beauty
May the sunshine warm your bones
Might you find solace and grace in the changing seasons
Age is not a dirty word but wise,
Joy and pain intertwined
Yours was a fortuitous birth my friend
You are the grand mystery
I’m so glad we got to walk this place in tandem
This good earth
Together for only a short while, a blip really
There are so many of us zigzagging our way through the maze
Uniquely different
So many shapes, colors and sizes
Wanderers, leaders, and listeners
Infants not so long ago
We are journeymen
Travelers passing through
Where we’re going remains buried in the dirt and sandstorms
Inside ancient pyramids and dinosaur whispers
Oh, how I truly hope we’ll meet my again
Or not
This I cannot say
But surely I won’t forget, missing the mayhem as I exhale the last breath
Grateful and goodbye
Once upon a time
Weightless and free from counting the seconds
Homeward bound
I dream of a new and improved dimension
Extinct of hate, poverty, judgment and the ugliness we leave behind
To no longer be tied to time
To no longer be tied to time
So it goes
Until then forge ahead
Father Time has not come to collect his debt just yet
Lovely, complicated persons live well
Not fearful or angry
Live very well
Live a good life
Fill it with purpose
You are happening now
One second closer to death
That’s the magic, isn’t it?
How we spend ours
The time of you and me
100, 800 Heartbeats in a day
Counting backwards

 

Photo Credit: Giuseppe Milo (www.pixael.com) Flickr via Compfight cc

Jacqueline Cioffa

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

Written by 

A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.

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