To Be Infinite

“No sun outlasts its own sunset, but will rise again
and bring the dawn.” —Maya Angelou

We sat watching the sun fall into the horizon and
melt into night.
Like our lives in this new year,
Crashing one into the other,
Waves of light reflected onto the windowpane.
In this new place,
Eyes transfixed to a horizon we could not recognize.
Yet, drawn to its familiar glow,
The same twinkle in our own eyes,
In the eyes of those we did not yet know.        
We shared in the comfort of this common friend,
The same light by which we are sustained,
Our lives illuminated long before we found each
other here,
Grasping at Fortuna’s hem,
Braced against our own temporality,
Even while we were just beginning to live.
We contemplated how best to spend our piece of eternal time,
In this new place, in this new year, under the same sun.
We thought of all the friends we left behind.
The time spent and suns set,
Moments long faded into the moonlight of memory,  
Lost in time we could never reclaim.
And so, we vowed,
Before this day’s sun slipped again into night,
To relish every moment awake and dreaming,
Because in this moment we realized:
All that is beauty exists in fleeting.
That which we hold dear,
Was never meant,
To be infinite.

—By Abigail Clarke