The Length of A Lifetime

A Poem

~2 min read

June, Christmas 2021 — photo by author

A lifetime
can be an hour,
a day, a week,
eighteen-months.

A lifetime
isn’t summarized
by the things we blindly consume
to fill the empty space.

A lifetime
is how the soul fills itself
by paying attention, listening,
loving, and learning to let go.

A lifetime
can be
the absence of time
once promised.

A lifetime is the pang
of hurt in the space
spanning from the last time
I kissed you.

One lifetime overlapping another
is a timely reminder
of its transience —
though the soul is vast.

One’s lifetime does not end
when the heart stops beating
for it bleeds into
surrounding lives.

The living carry
the deceased,
separated only
by the construct of time.

A lifetime is tapped into
by the soul, who ushers
past energies into this life, then out —
to forge a new existence.

A lifetime without you
feels endless —
Which some might say
is a gift.

Your lifetime made mine feel longer.
Because of you,
I can feel the minutes as they pass,
and long for those that lay ahead.

Your lifetime
was cut far too short,
But I hope,
that it still felt whole, to you.

The living will never understandwhy the duration of a lifetime.
What matters most is
your lifetime felt complete to you.

You arrived to this earth
intentionally
and did everything here
you were meant to do.

Sometimes, everything
can be accomplished in just
an hour, a day, a week,
or eighteen-months.