Forever Now

By D. H. Drake

Ensign Poetry Contest Winner Second Place

Once he has plunged his hand

Into a rainbow—been stunned

At the swim of color on his skin—

A man can never be the same.

He will begin to pray the rain down

At the slightest breeze or hint of cloud

And see for the first time blossoms

Change texture in a day

And not look away.

It was etched in stone:

Eternity is learning

To stay Forever Now.

Yet know, as geese glide low

And lower into the fields

Finding the view diminished,

Near is sometimes too far to see.

A man cannot wait upon the day

That he might bathe in a cloud of butterflies

Shimmering warmly in the sun, soft wings

Pouring over his shoulders like a velvet waterfall.

That could happen once in a trillion years.

Thou shalt therefore ponder:

Is this very hour his last best chance

To watch the wind roll waves through seas of wheat,

Or gaze on glistening webbed medallions spun beneath the dew?

A man may work his welcome on our world,

Or waiting for an endless end may ever wait

And never on this earth confirm that now is new.