What Can I Take From The Past That Is Not Already Here In The Future Poem by James McLain

The dusk still drapes in silver mist,
The stars still bloom in skies so wide,
The sea still sings its endless song,
And yet, the past is locked inside.

I walk where footsteps once were laid,
Where voices whispered soft and low,
But time has washed their echoes clean,
And left me longing for their glow.

The garden hums with summer's breath,
The roses spill their crimson hue,
But are they not the same that grew
When love was young and hearts were true?

Can I take laughter, bright and fleet,
Or morning light on quiet eaves?
The past dissolves like drifting snow,
Its beauty fades but never leaves.

What of the words we swore to keep,
The vows we traced in golden air?
Like petals blown upon the wind,
They float—unanswered—everywhere.

And so I stand in future's arms,
Yet still I search, yet still I yearn—
For something lost but never gone,
For something time will not return.