I'm off today, though musing, meandering through my mind,

The memories keep cropping up, and make my life unwind.

All through the years, from babe to child, from girl to woman grown,

And nothing in meandering is causing me to moan,

But oddly, nothing that I do can make the past recede,

It's all demanding equal time to redisplay each deed.

Unbidden comes the little girl with bucket in her hand,

Crouching down beside a rock and digging up the land.

And then I see her by the sea, with castles all about,

Happy, sunning, splashing, causing seagulls there to rout.

A flash and there's the playground and I'm watching others jump,

And then the memories run amuck and settle in a lump.

For me to sort through like a pile,

To pick the ones that made me smile.

My children growing one by one, 

Those make delightful stories

My pets, how much I loved each one

My fuzzy crowning glories.

My head holds stories like a book,

And I should sit and take a look,

But first I need to cease to wander

Often, there's no time to  ponder.

With work and study, chores and such,

There hardly ever very much

Of time that's needed to peruse,

To pick the stories I would choose.