Dust

I had to scour my old computer to find this poem. I KNEW I had saved it (about 20 years ago) but had misfiled it and the search drove me nuts! I finally found it. I have way too much old stuff that I have transferred, first from an Apple LCII to the Y2K model, and then to the very large screen 2009 tabletop iMac. The last transfer was to my laptop. This poem was really lost in all of those transfers that I did the "long way." No trickle uploader or any other file transfer was ever used. The main point here is that it wasn't on the laptop and I wanted it!  Silly me. My brain is slowly turning into dust!

"Why Dust?"

Dust if you must, but wouldn’t it be better

to paint a picture or write a letter,

bake a cake or plant a seed.

Ponder the difference between want and need.

Dust if you must, but there is not much time,

with rivers to swim and mountains to climb!

Music to hear, and books to read,

friends to cherish and a life to lead.

Dust if you must, but the world’s out there

with the sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair,

a flutter of snow, a shower of rain,

this day will not come ‘round again.

Dust if you must, but bear in mind,

old age will come and it’s not kind.

And when you go, and go you must,

You, yourself, will make more dust!

Dust if You Must was written by Mrs. Rose Milligan from Lancaster in Lancashire, England, and first published on September 15th, 1998 in the 21st edition of The Lady ("in continuous publication since 1885 and widely respected as England's longest running weekly magazine for women").