my eyes were clear and gorgeous this morning and the mirror held my gaze longer than usual i was still young though feeling like life had passed me by emptiness was a word i knew well as Robinson Jeffers knew it and as the mountains have known it standing pointlessly still for thousands of years as the cracks in stone mimick wrinkles in the sculptor's hands we have accepted that we will become ashes and bones yet our children are born with a will to create as if something will remain after us and after the ocean and sun that silent endless true as gospel nothing