A Woman's Years
By Kathryn Shamburger

[Kathryn Shamburger lives in Tyler, Texas and is a frequent contributor to Christian Ethics Today.]

Where did the years go?
I turned and they'd fled.
My sandpile, my paper dolls
Under my bed.
My shiny bicycle
All silver and blue
Long ago vanished.
My doll Patsy, too.
Those years wearing bobby socks
A sweater and skirt
Arms filled with books
And yet still time to flirt.
That walk down the aisle
And vows spoken with prayer
It seems such a little while
Since we were there.
I can just see the diapers
There on the line
Clean babies all fed
And to think they were mine.
Each stumbled a little
But held my hand tight.
Now their babies wake them
In dead of the night.
Where did the years go?
Oh, they could not stay
And I would not keep them.
Hey, what's on today?

 

Updated Tuesday, January 02, 2001