You stand on the river’s edge and gaze upon its surface. Before you lies a myriad of visions, yourself at different ages. Your past of recklessness and mislead convictions, an admirable willingness to take on the world. The present, your regret, and the burden of choice. Your future is shrouded in a clandestine, opaque mist. Together the images create a kaleidoscope of emotions, of unbridled joy, of unflinching love, of unbearable yearning.

You have created as often as you’ve lost. With each decision came equal repercussion. Sometimes for the better, though oftentimes you feel the opposite. The clear path becomes blurred, your heart tugging between desire and necessity. You can no longer recall what the sun looks like as it breaks through the horizon, only the clouds that obscure the dawn.

Do you remember how you smiled when you first rode your bike down that precarious slope in the summer heat as your older sibling chanted you on. When you created your first dish that brought you joy, pork fajitas, slow roasted and grilled, with a guacamole you made from scratch. When you gazed into your lover’s eyes in the passion of night, as the moon reflected off of her mesmerizing hazel eyes, promising that you would last forever.

You close your eyes and brave into the depths, bracing yourself for the following oblivion. Before you break the surface, a smile sneaks upon your face. It’s over. You can rest. You cannot tell if the moisture beneath your eyes belongs to you, but perhaps it’s for the best that you will never know.

Everything eventually erodes, leaving not but memories that fade as surely as the universe expands beyond your reach. You grasp at straws, but it all slips between your fingers as sands to the cosmos. You wonder how many billions have felt the same. Is this what it means to exist, a constant cycle of exhilarating invigoration and bitter inevitability that wears you out until it ceases. Not in ceremony, there will no applause for your end, only a whisper as you fade into nothingness.

There will be a final sunrise and sunset. The planets will become engulfed in the following explosion, a catastrophic domino effect that will leave no trace of all there ever was. Its sounds will ripple through time and space before it too fades into the vastness of forever. You will not live to see it.