Picture It and Write from ermiliablog@wordpress
Write a paragraph of fiction or a poem to accompany the image.
The picture prompt for this week is below:
The Sands of Time Slip Away
Except these days the sand is
Littered with glass, and cans, and jelly fish,
And questionable plastic whatevers there might be,
That you don’t even want to look at
Much less pick up with the tips of two fingers
And toss as far away to the side as possible,
Scrunching up a disgusted face and grunting, “Ugh.”
And gum wrappers, and bread from yesterday’s
Sandwiches, and all sorts of other
Green meats and greased spots, and I have to admit that
I never go there anymore, that is, to the beach.
The sands have slipped away, and I am
Old and intolerant,
And
I long for the days when
It was sand,
Pure,
And simple sand,
Uncluttered.
It was a beach then,
The worst we defended against
Was the blast of a transistor radio,
An occasional jet drowning our voices,
And the unctuous smells of Coppertone.
The white suited Good Humor man,
His shiny aluminum and strapped case
Shouldered to his left side
Like a left handed but happy gunslinger,
A Gene Autry of sorts,
Singing, “Ice Cream. Ice Cream.
Ice Cream Here.”
And our mothers yelled at us to place
The empty wrappers in the plastic
Bags that she kept the sun
Screen in and bagged baloney sandwiches,
Which she later either carried home or tossed into
Diamond-wired and green open trash cans alongside the
Burning concrete sidewalks
Which made us jump up and down on our toes,
Yelling, “Ouch. Ouch.”,
All the way back to our parked
Pontiacs or Chevys or Fords
With burning sandy feet, and bright red
Sun burned shoulders, and
Our mothers
Still yelling to put towels down on the seats
And clean off our feet before
We got into the car.
The sands of time change.
The grainy stuff slips past our fingers.
We forget,
Or, we let loose the past.
We make way for the new,
Or we get out of
The way.
What few grains, unrecognizable
As they are,
Still remain,
Are left for our children
To pick up and quote
To theirs
That
“The sands of time slip away.”
But how those grains
Have changed
Since I was young.
Randy Mazie
The Writer's Village 
I absolutely love this! Extremely well written. I was there.
I hope you check out my new book, “Weeds”. I have a kid’s book too, “Bedtime Tail”.
links?
They are on Amazon…”Weeds” and “Bedtime Tail”…you can also enter my name: McGuffy Ann Morris. 🙂
Excellent poem.
TY
Randy
Wow, Randy, you really are old. I never would have remembered half the things you mentioned here. Ah, what days those were. I do remember, with your help, the ice cream man on the beach and “clean your feet off” and “put a towel down” and the burned shoulders and you really are my brother, aren’t you? Are we twins maybe? I mean, I have all these same memories. You’re not as dim witted as you proclaim if you can put together words like you do and mesmerize me like you do. Thanks for these memories! I love them. Oh, and our car was an old Dodge until we got a new ’61 Midnight Blue Chevy Impala.
First, thanks for the nice comments and reply. I am old man with a lively heart and soul.
Glad to bring back the memories, my bro.
Separated at birth.
Let’s drink to the old days.
You remember me. I’m what’s his name?
It is a tragedy what we’ve done to the earth. I really liked what you came up with for this picture.
Thanks. Tragic is such a good descriptive word.
I keep forgetting that I have to go to the “Reader” section of WordPress to read some of the blogs I follow. Glad I thought to do so today!
yes, otherwise the sands of time will slip away from you
it’s a great poem and i really loved the message 🙂
Thanks