time
Why can’t my mind
Grasp the meaning of time
When it seems to be
All around me?
Why can’t I find
The coordinates that define
My position in time
That binds me?
Am I inside time
In a box made of pine;
Is that what I feel
That confines me?
Am I outside time
On borderless lines
That somehow still
Entwine me?
Who’s to say
The time of day
That gives birth to emotion?
Might as well talk
Of random clocks
In the cosmic ocean.
The second hand swept
As the women wept
Waiting for the hands of the divine
To reverse the motion
Of that rolling ocean
And relinquish the sublime.
Well I’ve been wined and dined
Then made to recline
On vines from the Garden of Eden
While all the time
A ghost sang supine
And looked away
As she two-timed me.
Is my reality the kind
That comes from bad wine
Which only serves to blind me?
When will I see
All my singularities
Finally left behind me?
Well I’ve walked the line
And I’ve paid the fine
But they’re still not inclined
To tell me.
To get through
Do I have to pay dues;
Is that what they’re
Keeping from me?
I’ve knelt and prayed
With eyes that stayed
Closed to the movement of time
While time looked the other way
Swearing it was trying to find me.
Who’s to say
The time of day
That gives birth to emotion?
Might as well talk
Of random clocks
In the cosmic ocean.
The second hand swept
As the women wept
Waiting for the hands of the divine
To reverse the motion
Of that rolling ocean
And relinquish the sublime.
Well I’ve played the game
Taken all the blame
For a reality that’s never on time.
I’ve closed all the hatches
Even locked the latches
But time still escapes me.
I’ve sped near light’s cars
Floated next to black stars
In an effort to catch its tail
But it seems an illusion
To increase my confusion
Time still will not avail me.
I’ve felt memory’s rope
And the future’s hope
Separated by the desire
To swear a vow
Yet still somehow
Extinguish destiny’s fire
I’ve looked for traces
In statues whose faces
Were effaced by the wind
But only found
My reflection
Telling me not to give in
While all the while
With their timeless smiles
Dust devils danced all around me.
Well the lost and found
Has slipped out of town
Through the back door of my mind
Finders keepers losers weepers
I just want what was stolen by time.
Like a beggar’s cup
That’s been filled up
With mistakes of the temporal kind
They’ve taken their time
And stuffed my mind
With the emptiness all around me.
I’ve seen clocks whose hands
Have been stopped by the sands
Of time blown in from broken hourglasses
While timeless glances
From long dead romances
Continue to swirl all around me.
I’ve eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner
With losers and winners
Of the time trials for Olympic gold,
Heard their stories unfold
Then been retold
Still bound to the starting blocks inside me.
Is it my quantum mind
That defies the sharpness of time
Blurring cause and effect?
Am I bound free
In a sea of general relativity
With lines that suture
Past, present and future
Which exist simultaneously?
If I truly knew one thing
Would I know everything
Or must I know everything
Before I know anything?
Birthday’s ring, deathday’s ring,
Ain’t no one can make that bell unring.
Who’s to say
The time of day
That gives birth to emotion?
Might as well talk
Of random clocks
In the cosmic ocean.
The second hand swept
As the women wept
Waiting for the hands of the divine
To reverse the motion
Of that rolling ocean
And relinquish the sublime.