Past caring

My past is catching up with me
         in ways I never imagined
the texts and the images
         and all the incidental props
of my youth are now museum pieces
         I find my adolescent years
themed into exhibitions
         and I walk through the galleries
inspecting fragments of years
         that have long been dead
and it’s an eerie feeling
         as though the world is saying
hurry up and produce more life
         that we can capture and catalogue
and place behind glass
         because your past days
are more important to us
         than your days to come

This week I’ve seen Egyptian relics
         rescued from cities
submerged by the sea
         and I’ve strolled through a collection
of memorabilia charting the social
         and political upheavals of the sixties
and to be perfectly frank
         I’ve grown more than a little tired
of these manicured processions
         through the past

Let the dust submerge the dust
         I want the warm sensations
of everyday life with its colour
         with its flowers and its beating hearts
not yet turned to stone
         and the eternal hope
that love will grow and that one kiss
         will lead to another

John Lyons