Bloom of Life

You see my face now aging,

Within the looking-glass -

The Bloom of Youth is fading,

Fading,

Fading to the past.

Girlish virtues once so soft,

creased with many lines -

telling my tales and singing the songs,

revealing my many crimes:

Crinkles at the eyes - memory of childish laughter.

Puckers at the lips - evidence of impish disaster.

Deep furrows at the brow - a tale of recent sorrow.

And many more lines wait in the wings,

of the distant days of Tomorrow.

I feared my face was aging,

as I glimpsed the looking-glass.

The Bloom of Youth now fading,

Fading,

Fading much too fast.

Childhood dreams once so clean,

grow dimmer now with time.

Lost to the grips of Uncertainty -

Adulthood's reason and rhyme:

Hands have dried and chapped - every job assigned well-done.

Freckles dust each feature - a cruel blessing from the sun.

Snowy locks peak to the surface - never mind the touch of gray!

And many more changes await me now,

With every passing day.

At first I was afraid by this gentle joke of time,

For losing the Bloom of Youth is a woman's one true crime -

But though my heart has broken,

and shed tears within the night,

My days are not yet numbered -

I refuse to lose my bite!

I see my face is aging,

gazing in the looking-glass.

The Bloom of Life never fading,

Never,

Never fading...

Now on to better things at last.

***

So, this one is definitely a real challenge for me. I've never been able to completely wrap my head around songwriting no matter how many times I've tried; personally, I've never really seen much difference between poetry and songs, though I'm sure there are many differences. But, in attempting to expand my horizons a little more I decided "Challenge Accepted!" when I first saw this posted, so here we are!

While I don't know much about songwriting, I do write poems sometimes, so figured I would start there and see how it goes. Though I did struggle to think of something to write about. I was about to give up when I happened to look at my reflection getting ready one morning - and it was the first time I noticed how much my face has changed in recent years...

It was a very bitter pill to swallow...

In all honesty, I'm only 32 years old at the time of writing this piece. I know: 'you're just a baby!' I can hear some of you typing. And in a lot of ways that still feels very true! But it doesn't change the fact that I've started noticing more wrinkles in my face - and under my eyes - and more sun-damage from years of tanning. And, to top all that off (and more!), I've found more and more white hairs...

Not gray - WHITE! Snow-white!

I had a bit of a panic-fueled freak-out after that one.

It was the first time I ever fully recognized that one day my looks will be gone. Not that I had much to begin with, frankly, or that I even really cared much about it to begin with. But it was a jarring experience - and one that made me appreciate other women a little bit more. While I'm not sure if I formatted this quite right, I hope the overall message at least got through. I hope you enjoyed it, and if you are a songwriter I'd welcome the feedback if you can spare the time!