What Remains

Tony DeLorger © 2016

Elements of me can still be seen,
for most have faded in life's time waged,
worn down resolves, hope and dreams, 
lost to the evolving experiences of existence,
and reflections just attest the loss,
show what remains, 
an often unrecognizable remnant
of a gradually bleached memory.

In the wake of life, as cells regenerate, 
replaced within the parameters of cycles,
so do thoughts, dreams and intentions,
evolving into plights far from wants,
and in that we see the new in a strange,
unidentifiable form, a stranger
in the mirror, peering back pensively.

And when those eyes beg resolve,
that maudlin expression questions,
what can reality say but shrug,
the pathways inexplicably tangential,
lost to original will,
and seeking answers to all of it,
every deviation father from plans.

What recognition remains is profound,
as it has survived like no other aspect,
and perhaps those are the true wills, 
the true pathways of realization,
those that sit at the core of who we are, 
and so I hold them close, 
move on when all else is lost.

No dream is clear-cut, no intention secure,
regardless of righteousness,
for it's the deviations that bring us clarity,
to see the real path, 
who we are, our destined place in this,
our evolving soul, 
our fleeting human life.