Every beauty suffers
has been condemned
A midsummer petal
passes away
Spring blossoms tumble
stripped by the wind
Low clouds across the sky
are constantly collapsing

An escarpment
that plummets into darkness
The essence of flowers
dramatically ends
and flickering leaves
are delicately shed
Not even footprints
are left

Waves fade away
snows swell the stream
Flooding rains ensure
nothing is left behind
A soft moon
dissolves into darkness
Patterns on the lake
everything melts

Flown with the changes
sunlit emptiness
Daylight ends
death comes and effaces all
Altogether complete
and altogether done
All dreams will cease
of themselves

The past is already past
the present does not stay
the future is not come
and there is nothing
to be left behind
Sunbeams stream
through the ruined ceiling
Pirouetting until their life is spent

Nothing remains
Grasses sigh
and sing in the wind
No significance
beyond themselves
Anything that possesses you
for the moment
has fled

Again
the pain of parting
This illusive realm
This immense universe
I feel out of place
Stationary
and somehow
left behind

© Ann Bagnall