The Alchemist’s Grace

The pendulum swings, but it doesn't return,

To the bridges we built just to watch as they burn.

I ask for no mirrors to show me the past,

No second-hand clock that’s designed not to last.

The glass, once it shatters, is jagged and thin,

And a "do-over" dream is a race we can’t win.

For a second chance asks for the world to stay still,

To pause the long tumble of stones down the hill.

But the wind has shifted, the season has turned,

And there’s no un-learning the lessons we’ve learned.

So let the doors close and the dead leaves be cast,

I won’t seek a ghost in the halls of the past.

But deep in the marrow, where shadows grow long,

I feel the low hum of a different song.

It isn't a rewrite of where we have been,

But the quiet courage to let light back in.

It’s the forging of steel from the wreckage of pride,

The blooming of flowers we once tried to hide.

Redemption doesn't ask for a path to be cleared,

It walks through the fire that we’ve always feared.

It takes every failure, the debt, and the grime,

And builds a new ladder through layers of time.

The chance may be gone, and the day may be through,

But the spirit is rising to make itself new.