Time and Age

I am dressed in leaves,
Sheaves of skin layered
Like time's passage through
My seasonal surrenders.

Every day I grow,
I age,
Add a grain of sand
To my castle piled up
Beside the sea who sees
Me inside a shell she
Shares with my shore.

Each day is a passage,
A ritual death
And rebirth,
It's a rite of passage
Into myself,
Sacrificing every moment
For the eternity of this
Momentary fire.

What I gain in time's advance
I retreat into
And diminish the passing
Shadow of the past,
Rationing reason to realize
The season of my daily surrender
Yielding to memory,
Yielding the fruit of emptiness
Embodying the embryonic
Fertility of finite futures.