Remember Child

Remember Child
by Merrique Lynn Richelieu


Remember child,
Should you become ill and frail-
Take heart, dear child, and see the world.
Remember child,
You life is not measured by how long you live
It is measured, sweet child, by what you do.

If your life is only short,
Then take heart, child, so is mine.
Should you take after me, sweet child of mine,
Remember this, that my life was but short
But I lived, child, I lived.
Because time would not wait for me-
I lived.

Sweet child, if you remember me,
I loved you with all of my heart.
Sweet child, if you take my advice
Which I give freely knowing you may not:
Do not wish and work and strive for more time.
You waste what little you have when you do that,
And you lose out on a full life.
A full life is full, whether or not it is long.
But a life trying to find time is squandered.

Should you be well, remember this, child:
I am not there.
But I have loved with more passion,
I have sought truth because there may have been no tomorrow to find it,
I have witnessed greater beauty
Than what you find printed in colored ink.
I have heard and written true words,
Because I had no time to be false.
I have seen so much, sweet child
Because I had no time to waste.
And I have loved you, dearest child of mine
Because life is too short to wait.