TIME MARCHES ON

[Maureen K Clifford]

TIME MARCHES ON

To you they may look different, but no, they are the same,
some folks seek simple lifestyles and yet others yearn for fame.
I came across some photos that both time and I forgot
and flicking through the pages realized that life had not.

The woman rocking there with a small child held in her arms
smiles down with love light in her eye, she’s captured by his charm.
Now here’s another picture, as she rocks in Grandpa’s chair
her face now blank and vacant. Just a vague and wistful stare.

Here’s one we took at Seaworld so many summers ago.
A girl in white bikini full of life, rarin' to go.
A hot babe you are thinking, maybe twenty - twenty five.
She now lies in a hospice bed strugglin’ to stay alive.

And here’s a boy and here’s his car. It was his pride and joy
But it was overpowered, and was not his Tonka toy.
He never gave a thought that speed and alcohol don’t mix.
We buried him, now let me see – yes nineteen sixty six.

Look at this wedding photo – oh that was a happy day.
Friends and family gathered to that small church on the bay.
But bride and groom have parted now and still the hurt remains,
though many years have passed since then the putrid wound still drains.

That little boy who wears the cape and mask of superman
is over forty now and he tells me that he still can
recall that photo Grandpa took - though Grandpa is long gone.
It was a play at Kindy and Gramps recorded his song.

And this one here’s a woman who was mother, lover, wife,
photographed at her brand new home – the best time of her life.
Or was it? Looking back I guess in fact that was not true.
Too many fights and sleepless nights and different points of view.


So though the picture’s altered – why should we find that strange?
Life constantly changes and we have to rearrange
the outward structures and facades to suit the master plan,
but nothing changes inside, I am still the same - I am!

Maureen Clifford © 07/12

[Neville Briggs]

Too true Maureen. I have a collection of family photos and I am now the only person left in the family who knows the people in the photos and can explain anything about their relationships.

I don't like looking at my car licence photos anymore, they are a record of how old age gallops along exponentially

[mummsie]

Reflection is a wonderful thing Maureen. Old photos can paint us as very different people, but as you say, time is the only change.
I love this write.

Cheers
Sue

[Rimeriter]

TIME - it is amazing how quickly it marches in these later years.

Memories are marvellous,
tears are the ink.
Spill your memories
as your eyes slowly blink.

Sorry Maureen, I should not steal your thread.
But I could not keep it in.
It is only an addendum to your masterpiece.
Jim.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Thank you - you are all very kind.

Time marches on was a favourite expression of one of my old bosses when I was about 18 . He used to drive me nuts walking the shop floor, wringing his hands and constantly repeating this phrase. He was also forever washing his hands physically with water in the sink and also just as he sat or walked the shop floor. A very irritating habit. Much later I learnt that he was a suffer from PTS induced by his war service which made me a lot more sympathetic towards him and caused me to wonder what had happened to him. I wondered if perhaps he had been a POW as he was rail thin.

As I have aged I often think of this poor lonely man, and wonder what ever became of him. He was single, British, very stiff upper lip type but inside I suspect a tormented soul.

Someone somewhere would have held a photo of the younger, fitter and stronger man - but time marches on

Cheers

Maureen

[Rimeriter]

YEP !