A Lifetime

by The Cowl Editor on October 1, 2020


Poetry


notebook with pen
Photo courtesy of pexels.com

by Anna Pomeroy ’23

Life is a piece of paper.
A single sheet––
Lost in the endless motion of pages.

It is fresh and crisp.
Yet, its once desired appearance––
Becomes indistinguishable
Over the years.

We can choose to wear
Our heart on our sleeves––
Sometimes, disguised in
Illegible scribbles.

Or
We can erase what we once knew.
We behold the power within
The eraser––
To wipe away our footprint.

We can manipulate
Our narrative.
It is up to us,
How we are perceived––
And the story we tell.

Throughout our span,
We will become worn
Through cuts and crumples.

Yet, we bear these external forces.
We grow with them––
Becoming tough.

While we may take in so much,
In the time we have––
Our lifetime is just
As delicate, paper thin.

But with our death,
We are recycled.
The impact we left on earth
Remains.
We leave behind pieces of us––
Scattered in words,
And our genetics passed along
To the next.
Because a great story
Cannot be told on just a
Single sheet of paper.