I had this thought a few weeks ago, while looking through a family photo book my mom had gifted us.

All growing up, into my teens and well into college and early on in my own child-rearing years... it felt like my parents never aged. They were stuck in time. We would joke that my dad had discovered the fountain of youth. I moved away and stopped seeing them on a weekly or monthly basis. And the next time I saw them... it felt almost as if it happened overnight... I noticed my parents moving slower. More tired. A little more grey. I realized my parents were finally growing old.

As I sat there, looking at the warmth of those photographs, the thought I had was something along these lines:

"My kids will never know what my parents were like when they were young. They never saw them when their youthfulness and vitality was most vibrant. All they'll know is what's in these old pictures. They'll never experience my Mom and Dad in full color."

When I sat down with my guitar that night, the melody and lyrics came quickly and fiercely, as they often do. I thought I'd share them here, along with a very rough voice memo that'll serve as a time capsule of sorts.

Much love,

-Riah

In Color 🖍️

Stories

From the books she read to me

Melodies

On the ivory keys

Laughter

As he bounced me on his knee

Carried me

While I was half asleep

Chorus:

I’m safe there

Inside those perfect movie scenes

I’ll stay where

I can taste the memories

And they’re so young there

I thought they’d never grow so old

Or grow so grey.

Bridge:

My kids will never know

More than a photograph can show

Time

Tends to eat away

At life

With a dull knife

Cutting the years and years and

Stories

That I wish I’d written somewhere

Painted pictures of the nightmares

That they clawed out of my mind

But gently

Like the leaf boat on the water

He and I set free

My father

I’ll never let him go

Gently

Like the fingers on my shoulder

My mother whispered “let me hold her”

I’ll never let her go.

Chorus:

I’m safe there

Inside those perfect movie scenes

I’ll stay where

I can taste the memories

And they’re so young there

I thought they’d never grow so old

Or grow so grey.

How did someday

Happen?

How did someday…

I’ll tell them

Stories

From the books they read to me

Play melodies

On fake ivory keys

In these stories

I’ll keep the color in their faces

And their faces full of color

Like the stories they would read me

And the fantasies they’d feed me

And I’ll keep them

I’ll keep them

…In color

Oooo

How did someday

Happen?