everything we are

as we read words of those gone,
now off in somewhere out of sight,
nothing is left of their times
only recorded shards remain

memories are slim fragments
that don't do justice to the fullness felt
when it was us, when we were then
all slips from present tense to nearly forgotten

history is nothing in this world
lessons standing only in the telling
anachronistic flickers
out of time, out of place

so as you move ahead each day
do pay attention to every moment
and do your best to make good ripples
in the changing seas of time