If You Only Had An Hour

If you only had an hour

Would you run away every second

Like you’ve always done

Knowing you can’t outrun time

When it has already begun

Or would you laugh every second

And accept the now

The same as you approach life

The only way you know how

If you only had an hour

Would you loathe every second

With your heart’s abundance of hate

Or make peace with what eats you

Before you reach heaven’s gate

Or would you count down every second

Invite your maker along

And show defiance despite

That you feel far from strong

If you only had an hour

Would you still worry every second

And fill yourself with dread

With what may never happen

And for what might lay ahead

Or would you plead every second

To repair your discord

Renegotiate with God

Like a desperate fraud

If you only had an hour

Would you feel every second

With every bit of your soul

Or would you stay hard

And indifferent but in control

Or would you love every second

Before you part

Those who surround you

With an unconditional heart

The Athlete

My head knows something

That meant so much to me

But my heart won’t see fit

To let go and set me free

They say never walk

In anyone’s shadow

But I’m walking in my own

I always will, head to toe

But this thing so important

As my sense of touch

Should be something

That don’t mean as much

It’s like there’s this guy I know

Looks athletic, fits the mould

But the game passed him by

As age took hold

I was made to do things

With my hands and a ball

But if I can’t play as I used to

I don’t want to play at all

It’s cruel that I still know

How to do what I always did

When my body reminds me

I’m no longer a kid

I know that being an athlete

Does not define who I became

But it made me who I am

It’s much more than a game

I prayed for one more year

To hold on to all I’d known

Realising like every other

I was not alone

I hope to be at peace

Accept it was simply a phase

A single chapter of many

As brief as my playing days

An Old Friend

Dear old friend, I speak for many a grown-up child

We are sorry and sad that you have been beguiled

While your cascading branches still quiver in the breeze

There is no way for you to hide that you look ill at ease

Gone are those days when we were your fruit

Around your trunk playing kiss chase in hot pursuit

You provided us shelter from the hot summer sun

In your flowing leaves you protected each and every one

And when we needed a confidant we were always aware

Of your soft leafy rustle as if to whisper you care

You were the centrepiece around whom our days revolved

You never failed to nurture us as our young lives evolved

But children aren’t built with a sentimental mind

So please forgive us when we left that we left you behind

Sadly the estate in which you faithfully stood no longer exists

You’re overgrown and forlorn in an overgrown midst

We feel sad to see you stand alone as you wither and weather

And that owing to development you were shunned altogether

For not far from your weepy eye is an institution anew

And now the distant sound of children is just deja-vu

But while you no longer get the chance to affect new recruits

Remember your influence is as far-reaching as your roots

You still have a stately aura and are as graceful in your endeavour

You rise out of the wasteland as formidable as ever

Wise old friend, we know they have been so cruel

You were significant in our childhood and a pillar of our school

But fear not that in our adult minds you won’t live on

It’s a human trait to not know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone

Indelible tree please accept our plea

For you will always be our faithful and majestic Willow Tree