Building

“You almost always plant

for people coming after you,” he said.

“The trees we now enjoy 

were planted here by others,

Your vision will be seen, perhaps,

in thirty years (except for fruit trees —

they may bear in two or three)”

The things we’re building now

will be loved by others,

and maybe that’s the reason —

Maybe when that impetus is gone

and what is left is just the search

for what to do today —

what entertainment, what exotic play —

we find our colors cooling,

and the urge to live

to gradually begin to fade away

But as long as we’re impelled

to keep on building,

we’ll be living in the timelessness of love,

blessed by others who have built before us,

blessed by what we give to future years.

©Wendy Mulhern

September 6, 2015