Pearls Priceless Beyond Compare
©2016, Aislynn d’Merricksson

 

Pearls of memory strung along, one by one,
beaded on strands of spirit and soul,
myriad shimmering hues, some big, others small.

Touch one, then another, and another.
Images bloom in the depths,
wakening in the mind,
scattered over months, days, weeks, years.
Decades.
A century, if perthro favours.

There is no linearity.
A light blue pearl- a child walks the beach with her grandmother,
shifting shark’s teeth from sand.

A salmon pearl- a family camps in late summer mountains,
lightly tinged with autumn’s glory.

A cream pearl- a young lady proudly completing a doctorate.

A milky white pearl- two sisters and a brother chasing fireflies in the meadow.

A pale aqua pearl- a seaside trip with friends,
summer thunderstorms, lightning licking rolling waves.

A deep rose pearl- callowayla, a lover twice-known,
whose soul resonates with one’s own.

A sickly yellow pearl, stunted and tiny- a girl-child, half blind,
huddled alone and afraid in the dark.

A pale grey pearl- a storm like no other, a spelling word definition learnt firsthand.

A green pearl- three friends sit around a table,
playing a card game of summoning monsters.

A black pearl- a terrible loss, fear confronted, the fires of transformation stoked.

Blue again, a deeper hue- mountains and sea, mirroring ancestral home.

Blue-grey- heeding the siren call of a far off land, uprooting,
laying new ones with a family redefined.

Pink- the flush of pleasure and pride,
holding a copy of one’s own book in hand.

Rich bronze- cradling cello and violin,
pure joy at learning to coax music from the strings.

Sapphire- an incomparably gentle heart in need of healing,
a bond and trust threaded deep.

Thus does it go, on and on, weaving through the years.
Memory keeps us whole,
makes us who we are.
Memory keeps our loved ones alive in our hearts.
Memory is our legacy and our inheritance.

Thread your pearls, treat them gently.
Polish them, prize them, even those scrawny or deformed.
Cherish the lessons each has offered.

A strand of pearls priceless beyond compare.