I Could Stay Poem by Raynette Eitel

The clock no longer ticks
But pounds past each minute
Each hour
Each morning and night
As I pack my battered, tattered bag
Pondering what to put in,
What to leave.

I am not ready yet
To go that way.
I could stay
Another hundred and fifty years
To greet each new child
With a song, a story,
A tale from the past.

I want to look into their eyes
At last finding
Grandmother's gentle wisdom
Mother's wit,
My own warehouse
Of words and wonder.

I want to stay
To rub sunshine across my face
And hear the melodies
Of sea, wind, rain,
Laughter of babies,
And the sweet harp sound of rainbows
Bowing their way across the sky.

I am not ready to go
But the clock keeps on pounding
As I pack my battered, tattered bag.