Every Trick In The Book

Rust

I am born
My limbs are useless,
I only exist,
My only purpose is to survive.

I grow into a child
I spend my summers outside;
Playing in berry mires and by the sea,
With the sun high in the sky, beaming down.
I hear stories of how beautiful it was,
When it was still new.
I can only appreciate how beautiful it still is,
Even though time has made it different.
We become lost in those bushes that flow like water,
But we're never truly lost, for we're right at home here.
I grow older again,

Becoming a teenager.
I become tired from the pressures to succeed,
Feeling like a prison without walls.
I fall in and out of love, wondering why good things can't last forever
Eventually accepting, but never understanding the rule;
All good things must come to an end,
Eventually.
I grow older once more,

Becoming a man.
I fall in love and marry, hoping this one will last.
I become distant from my children,
Too tired to play;
Too busy to pick them up when they fall.
I grow older a final time,

Becoming an old man.
Limbs that once carried me to the top of the tallest tree,
Now struggle to take me to the top of the stairs.
They are useless to me once again.
I learn to appreciate the more beautiful things,
Such as the weight and power memory has.
The past can be a haven – a solace;
A light in the darkest of times,
But if you can't let it go, it'll drag you under.
Everything has become so hard to do;

Walking to the shops feels like running a marathon,
Carrying a bag of shopping feels like moving a sack of bricks.
However, it all goes away,
When I look over that berry mire once more:
My hair now grey, my limbs useless,
The sun sets, and I realise why good things can't last forever.
Every machine will eventually rust,
And every engine will ultimately stop humming,
All love will one day fade.
Eventually, we all rust;
And like broken, old machines,
Or a rusty, superfluous cog,
We'll all end up in the scrapyard one day.