TIME

© Gloria Smith 2010

Time came and went as quickly
As a comet sweeping by in the evening sky
Measured in meteor moments
Flashes of memory, scenes of years
Sounds of tears; flutters of Angels wings
Baby sighs, young men old
And dreams as cold and black as space
And God's eternal grace
My grand old clock slew time
It ticked and chimed
My heart thumped loudly in tune
In time
Life passed by
I waved to it and called to it
But it walked on by
With the merest glance, the slightest wave
It gave as if an afterthought
Time does not go though
It remains and we must leave
While others grieve our passing and yet we live
This energy, this spark of fire, and flame
And soul, and name... our lives exist
And yet expire all in the same moment
We are gone before we arrive and yet alive
Our past to haunt, our future too
And here and now so much to do
And do we know that time best spent
Is sometimes best not spent at all
A nap, a porch, a Catbird's song
A squirrel, a rose, a poem, a son
A meteor in the black velvet of an evening sky
I think I heard an Angel sing
While I lingered half asleep
Clinging to my old lawn chair