Life is a cycle of vanishings

Hospital doors close and the outside world is gone

Until bulging tummies deflate and we're born

Opening our eyes for that first meal, bath and smile

All momentarily happening and then gone in a flash

But often time is held fast in our precious family albums

The first day down the school-yard path we vanish from anxious eyes

Onward down the high-school path, childhood forever gone

Then a new phase beginning and another cache of firsts emerge

First date, champagne, driving lesson and love

With that trusty old camera saving the day once more

                                                            To jog us when minds and bodies later return to childhood

                                                            But meantime there's that holiday of a lifetime

                                                            Perhaps we're on that speck in the sky or the one out on the horizon

                                                            Or gravitating into the life of that extra special person

                                                            Until the "Just married" sign vanishes in the distance

                                                            So eventually and inevitably the cycle begins anew

                                                            When the hospital doors close and the outside world is gone