“After all our years have settled like dust . . .”
                                           ––okc forgottenman

Ashes and Dust

When that cruel wind
blows against memories
that have settled like dust
on our lives,

what  will remain
sealed in our crevasses
––fine furniture that we are
of a bygone age?

What remaining minutes
of a long life of years
will define us then?
A kiss? A child held in arms?
Regrets? Terrors?

In those storerooms
where people  sit
stacked in silent cubicles,
what zephyrs whisper through
to stir the embers
of their minds?

Is there music in those currents
or are they the sad
whining winds
that curl over headstones
and lament the dust that settles there?

Life builds us and wears us away.
Like the mountain,
like sand on the beach,
we are not above it all.

No matter how much power
we think we gain,
Nature is a wind that breathes
into us at birth,
then dashes us away.

I wrote this poem three years ago, drawing inspiration from a poem by okc forgottenman . Find his poem Here.

Today’s prompt from Matthew’s Daily Inkling:

It is often said that the most important thing on a gravestone is the dash between the two dates. Who in your family has the most renowned dash — the one who made the most pronounced mark on history?