Journey

Our surface etchings,
how quiet the disfiguring moves,
skin's tenacity ever protective,
even as tissue of smiles eventually
becomes but canyon topography of time past.

Leisurely proceeds savage healing beneath,
bombarded with nature's unexpected.
Aging platelets shift,
taking their time,
knowing we wait,
uplifting sorrows once buried,
making molten the flow
once contained and hardened.

Whether by deed
word,
or thought,
wounds start open,
their scarring knowing patience,
art rendered of the dreaded kind.

And then a day finally arrives.

Scars begin to shrivel.
Age becomes its own embrace,
the earned chameleon friendship,
a cycle complete,
the rebirth of crying,
the wrinkled mature baby
awaiting protection.

However…

This time,
with the long sleep
poised at the threshold,
where awakening
remains unnecessary,
smile muscles mix with sadness.

A completed resonance becomes
the all of one.