Skip Copyright © Colin Whyles 2010

Life begins with the skip of a heartbeat
the zing of a heart-string;
a stirring of the primordial soup

Youthful life bounds
with a hop-skip and jump
the splash of a puddle;
skip-to-my-Lou
marked by skipping rope tunes

The lengthening years
progress in turn
every road, every path
each are walked;
no step is skipped
not even to the light
(L.E.D.)
newly fan-dangled

So life advances
retreat by retreat
bringing familiarity to
the skip to the loo

But when the last fluttering
skipping breath has settled
passing life is marked to the full
not by ashes
not by freshly turned earth
but by the upturned mattress
in a skip.