First Love

You rhododendron-pink-headed children

cheery as the flowers of this spring day

and as transitory.

As days spin by, and I try to relearn

how to hang on; hang on to now,

all we have; always all we’ve ever had.

I envy you living so in the present,

even as I encourage you to plan for tomorrow,

to worry about the future.

Don’t listen to me. 

What do I know?

Teach me instead

to play while I still have limbs,

to breathe while there is still air,

to love while there is still today.

~Andrine de la Rocha

posted 2/9/2011