I   C o n s e r v e

I conserve
My energies now.
They hung like peaches from the tree
Now sticky sweet, they lie in jam jars.
I put them on a toast sometime
The crisp brownness of life
Lends them a certain flavor
Long after they are licked clean.

I conserve
Some memories now
They were not there earlier
Now they often do appear.
But will fly away
Flakes of ash in air
Unless I hold them in my mind
Impressions of once- upon- a- time.

I conserve
A touch now.
To feel against my skin
Time and again
When darkness falls
And no one is there
In the growing stillness
To caress my wind blown hair.

Conserve for what
When all is meant to disappear?
So the present may survive
And the future know
All that has gone before
And hold and smell and taste
And feel
The transience of life.

[First published in Scribe Spirit "Conservation" issue, 2006]