Like glow-worms on the roof,
Of some deep limestone cave,
Countless stars dot the heavens,
Searching answers I crave.
And as each blink reaches Earth,
Taking light years, yet now burnt,
Energy wasted, like those lives,
What lessons have we learnt?
On this beach at Vung Tau
Wonder expressed on my face;
Giant bodies as mere specks
Suspended far out in space.
Each wave crashes, with a roar,
Unrelenting, rolling in;
Spawned miles out in the depths,
White-capped in moonlight, by the wind.
During this hot summer night,
Tempered here, by the breeze,
Black skies as a backdrop,
Images young, I can freeze.
I think about what could have been,
Power politics dominate;
Chance to avoid repetition,
Slips and fades, will not wait!
Silhouettes of the Long Hais,
Haunting peaks, just like before;
Since last I saw you, thirty years,
A flash in time, since that war.
And like the shine on new metal,
Fading to rust by this sea,
No one will care when you're gone,
When we're dust, you and me.
Grains fall through my hands,
An hour-glass of quartz, now so fine;
Like our hopes, as a whole,
Rock remnants broken, clocking time.
Small fragments, symbolic,
Of minerals and shell;
Whereas once they had meaning,
Their function now, hard to tell.
And as my mind wanders,
I'm brought back, down to Earth;
Realisation of my size,
Just how little, I am worth.
Oh hindsight! Reveal thy wisdom!
Yet mistakes once made, cannot mend!
Even stars, waves and mountains,
Like chances.....fade in the end!
