If only someone had said,
when I was young, some time ago,
'Enjoy this light, this sunshine.
Embrace the warm days and bright colors.
Cherish the sweet smells of the grassy fields
and memorize fully the crisp testure of life.'

If only I had thought to keep close,
(even closer than I felt I already had, then)
the sights and sounds, the smells and spirit
of all those fleeting moments and kept the
long luxurious hours filled with all of those... things.
Those things which no longer exist to be experienced.

I have reached those sepia-toned days
wherein the sharp and crinkly memories
are all that remain, peeking desperately out
from the shroud and veil of fuzzy sight,
the nerveless blunted tactiles and stopped up
choking smell, and the taste of naught but ashes.

I have learned to subsist on these few
wondrous and gorgeous moments, gilden,
when the clouds break and the air before me clears
and for the briefest of moments I am once again
seeing, feeling, hearing, touching and tasting
the wondrous nature and being of free youth.