Changed Into Song

Will the pieces of the life you’ve lived

  come together at the end

 

 Will the times that you reflected

  straighten your path out, free of bends

 

 Are the places that you visited

  more than way stops that you chose

 

Are the feelings that you left with

  still inside you—heaven knows

 

Are your children still in contact,

  do they ask you what you think

 

Are your parents now forgotten

  as you pour yourself a drink

 

Are the days now counted backwards

  with the best all left behind

 

Does the silence serve to haunt you

  with those things you cannot find

 

Does the laughter fall on deafness,

  do the smiles pass you by

 

Are your friends now off your guest list

  with no time then left to find

 

Are the pieces of your puzzle

  pointed sharp, and ill to fit

 

Does your conscience wear a muzzle

  with the blame an endless pit

 

Is it what you said you wanted

  when you started down this path

 

Or are you now among the hunted

  in a bad choice aftermath

 

If before you’re gone, one chance flew by

  a difference then to make

 

Would you hang on tight to all the lies,

  or embrace this change of fate

 

And if you do, the words will say,

  you almost got it wrong

 

Before you called those choices back

  —and changed them into song

 

(Grantham New Hampshire: March, 2015)