By Yvette L. Clemons

here we are, standing at the juxtaposition of

“to stay or to leave?”

new memories await us 

but the old ones still linger

floating through our minds like the leaves in the pond

the pond at mama’s house

with all the ducks

and we’d laugh

as we sat and watched them

never stopping to think about

the futile efforts 

to stay in that moment forever

(those, of course, would come in the future.)

but here we are

the ducks have all gone away. 

and now we sit at the pond

waiting for time to slow down

so we can feel the breeze

and mama’s warm hugs

and watch the leaves spin around

and just like that

it’s gone.                                 

not entirely.

there’s a new pond down the road

with- count ‘em- one-two-three ducks

and plenty of leaves

there’s a breeze

to tickle our noses and make our hair fly

mama’s not around to point out our newly acquired beehives

but the memory still lingers. 

and so as we stand at this juxtaposition of

“to stay or to leave?”

we choose to do both

because there’s too much good to discover

and too many ponds to find

to stay in the past.