UP ON TIME

UP ON TIME

I was young once
looking up at the untouchable
the tall ones
the ones who know stuff
they are impossibly far away

there may be siblings and fun
and competition
some are older
or younger
way different in ways
unknown.

it takes forever for this to change
you all of a sudden
after permanence it seems
grow above your sisters
some power they had over you
the little one
is over
kind of

school goes on
and on
never to end
then it is over
now you can drink
the forbidden fruit;
command your own attention

you do notice the drive
to be noticed
to connect
as if it were the one
mandate
time scripted,
the one thing
real
but in ways
invisible
like that place
the second hand
may seem to pause.

You are still too young
to really notice
what is happening to time;
its reference is growing
its moment is shrinking
the same amount of time
is never the same

the young can here this
questioning its validity
immortality still seems possible
despite mounting evidence
erased in the daily mirror

It will shortly be
a year from now
then one hundred
then one hundred thousand
a billion
it will come to pass
as it has
and is

i bring this up
for perspective.
your genetics will be
essentially unknown then
in many respects
the material you covet
and wish to attach achievement
fulfillment, accomplishment to
glued onto your legacy
will be immaterial
silent as tonight’s
ancient starlight
stranded between
then and now
and the clouds you see

so you must ask
a deeper thing of this life
what permanent part of it
do you know?
Do you have an answer
to the most obvious question?
How do you relate to that
unconquerable happening?
Can your face turn in
instead of only out
arms moving second by second
to something finite
and gone?

Does each moment make sense
to that eternal place
a still well within
all things
even
the palm of your hand
pulling the arm of reason
until the last second
breaks in two?