Softly We Rise

From a time and a space
Days have been numbered exactly
An hour only has sixty minutes
There won't be another added
Not even one of the 3600 seconds
Can be stolen from
These intricately manufactured
Clockworks

If that'd happen
They'd throw off the crowing
Of roosters
And the chirping
Of crickets
Then what kind of world
Would this be?

Once I thought
Time had passed me by
Like a train leaving the station
Out in the middle of nowhere
And a guy running across the plain
Waving his arms frantically
'Stop! Stop! All my luggage is in there!'
And all the apathetic faces looking out
Watching with a melancholy of inevitability

Time's march and its' fly and its' roll and its' crawl
Are noted in passing and approach
But how you spend this currency
Is your own business
To be added to your bill
Or your paycheck
@ checkout

Like when you're a little girl
And you realize someone you know
Is fifty years old
And you also realize that fifty years
Is a half of a century
And you think to yourself
'Half a century! That's mighty old.'

And you live
And you live
And you live

Until you're looking in the mirror
Fast approaching
The second decade marker
Outside of that mystical half century

With you in the mirror
Are all your past
All your fears
All your hopes
All your time
On the planet

You wonder
'How will I ever make this train?
There's not enough time.
I can't run as fast was I could
When I was younger.'

Suddenly the train stops
Dead in its' tracks
As if one of the passengers
Caught the conductor's  attention
And said
'I know you ain't gonna let that child
Drag itself all the way out here
In the middle of nowhere
With nothing but the clothes on its' back!'

The joy floods over you
As the conductor hits the breaks
Fifty yards from the depot
The engine exhales

Now you can breathe a sigh of relief
You have faced
The rushing wings of time
You have caught your train
And you are bound
For your destination

~ pmpope 2013