Vanity

Recently…

Vanity caught itself standing before the mirror on New Year’s Day,

last night's joyous and not so joyous reunion with the past

but another drifting ebb now.

Washed up on the Mind’s slime slick mudflats

were straggled sinews of seasoned synaptic weeds

weaving rampant webs through rusty Think containers

of consumerism's un-rewards,

while rotted prophylactics of Minds' vulnerabilities

succumbed to protected pleasures turned senile.

Eroding surfaces once reflecting youth,

now groveled to be remembered as antiquity,

while wedged beneath the broken buoys of balance

lost on oh so many impulsive bearings,

rested the shells and sand from Mistakes' endless storms.

In its momentary repose

try as it might to project a sparkle here,

perhaps a treasure there,

the gray-mossed body that once filled the swimming trunks to paradise,

could only stare beyond the reflection back to the stars.

Vanity poised for yet another year,

where once riding-the-waves reigned supreme,

but of late have become precipitous layers of gravity-driven sag,

mere dwindling currents of energy waiting to join

that endless lapping on eroded shores called time.