Pearls and snowballs

As the biting cold numbs my nose and I find my feet deep in snow,

My mind harks back to my time in sand

When the blazing sun would turn me a different color

When the heat made me sweat from every pore on my skin

I think of the pearls I possessed back then

Carefully created with warmth and just the right pressure, I’d hold them with care before the sun

And they’d gleam joyously in the blinding sunlight 

I remember how I held my pearls close to my heart, as I traveled over the vast ocean

But somewhere along the way, they slipped right out of sight

I searched and searched, through lonely days, and lonelier nights 

But what had been made with such care had now carelessly been lost

My mind returns to the present 

Surrounded by snow, I decide to pick some up 

With my bare hands, I make some snowballs, swiftly and without much care

They glisten under the half-hidden sun 

For a second, it all comes flashing back

The pearls and the shining light—it feels like home again 

Alas, the snowballs started melting away, much like my memories 

I lost them just like I lost my pearls— without a say in any of it

Perhaps pearls and snowballs are a lot alike

For at the end of it all, it doesn’t even matter.

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