Casting petals from time's flower
Remembering as they flutter back
In consciousness into that abyss
Of history we all trod.
University was the launch pad
Of the missile contrails we all became
Propelled into that vast expanse of life
As youth fell away in stages fluttering
Back into that abyss of history
Until at the edge of twilight when
The gravity of situations no longer
Have their importance, our minds
Float weightless waiting at apogee
For the inevitable fall back into the abyss
Burning up in the atmosphere of our
Declining years, pieces of our minds
Breaking away with smoldering memories
Names fluttering away from faces
That were once on launch pads
With us when that flower was but a seed.
"Those were the days, my friend"
Echos from the loudspeakers above
The launch pads as other faces
Ready for lift-off in new centuries
Wondering what it all means
And so do I in a different way
Embroiled in the flames of friction
With inevitability, hurtling into
Oblivion's abyss. This was one life
That might never have been lived
With all its unimportance
To everyone except me for
University was the gantry of
The butterfly on time's flower.
