(NOTE: I did not like the prompt given, so I wrote something different. It still needs a lot of work.)

 

Rejection

 

I

All life is a rejection of what went before.

We must grow and change.

To stand still in one place is to die before death.

In every choice lies a path of rejection.

 

II

Beauty is uncovered, a bud wrapped tenderly in a leaf,

it opens and presents its fragrance and color,

then withers and dries and falls to the ground.

The flower rejects the bud, the seed rejects the flower.

 

III

Rejection is a flavor of living.

One we must taste and put aside, or swallow whole.

To do or be done to. No one wants to stand alone.

Rejection makes way for the new.

 

IV

We must endure what we cannot reject.

Broken hearts, growing old, failures and fears.

Dreams and wishes propel us.

Sometimes good parents or education lift us.

 

V

Life flows from rejection to rejection,

and hope to hope. We want to know, we want to

be loved. Need for acceptance is learned from birth.

Seeking a soul mate motivates our actions.

 

VI

We wallow in youth and squander our gifts

on things we didn’t set out to do.

Our tank empties. We can no longer keep pace.

There is a point where we start to reject life.

 

VII

The corner is turned, not with flash and squealing wheels,

as imagined, but in the quiet, profound way the deaf must hear.

One day an honest face stares at us from the mirror

and without words says what we always dreaded.

 

VIII

The child rejects the infant, the man rejects the boy.

The old man laughs at what the young man doesn’t know

and the spirit laughs at the old man frozen in the mirror.

The future is still veiled.

 

IX

Rejection builds character, the wise used to say.

It creates the stones in the path of life we walk.

It frames the bottom and the top points of life.

It reveals the sum of who we become.

 

X

In every choice lies a path of rejection.

The flower rejects the bud, the seed rejects the flower.

Rejection makes way for the new.

We must endure what we cannot reject.

There is a point where we even start to reject life.

The corner is turned in a quiet, profound way,

but the future remains veiled.

The point where we start to reject life

reveals the sum of who we have become.

 

THIS STILL NEEDS LOTS OF WORK!!