Marble and Sand
©June 5th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
You hold your future lightly,
A glowing marble in the sun,
And watch it glitter.
And you twirl it about
Peering at it, curious,
Eager to get on with things.
Then, tossing it lightly aside,
You skip away, light-hearted –
A whole Now awaits you.
So much to do, so much to taste:
Read and sing, and laugh
And draw, and learn, and oh!
Such mindless joy, such joyful mind!
Rope-skip, hop-scotch, climbing trees,
Rowing imaginary boats with a best friend,
Becoming a merman (or mermaid),
Swimming to an islands, avoiding the Beast,
Your vast school playground an entire
Ocean to swim in.
Occasionally, you hold
That marble and gaze,
As at a crystal ball,
Mesmerized by what you see.
Do you see me in there –
Older, wiser (maybe), tired
Not jaded (well, sometimes),
Dreaming, always dreaming?
Or, do you shrug lightly,
As time turns to eat its tail?
Do you play endlessly, all chaos
And movement, shouts and
Ringing laughter – pure energy
On the receding shores
Of the shifting sands of your
Eternal, illuminated, sunlit,
Magical, singing childhood?
And all the while, a glinting marble
Lies buried in the sand, quiescent,
Patient, ready to be picked up later,
Because the Future can wait.
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