Time

Time stands still
When you wish it would fade
It seems to speed up
When you wish it would stay
Such a fickle thing
Time
How many have sought to master it
This unseen force
To bend it to their will
Yet felt it slip by
A constant flow, a never-ending stream
Or perhaps a circle
No beginning, no end
A cycle?
No no that cannot be
Surely there must be and end
As there is with every beginning
But when
Soon as the morrow
Distant as millennia
Who can say
Many have fallen behind the greater flow
Their separate tributaries long dry
But we are still running
Will we see the end
Not likely
Our lives only measure
As separate ripples.
There must be an end
Though no where in sight
But what is an end
Loss of consciousness
Unaware of the world
Or is there something more
And what is life
Simple consciousness
Awareness of breathing and existing
An illusion
A prison
And time is jailer
And bar and chain and brick
And executioner.
Time is truly an insidious thing
Can you not see
It steals your happiness
Prolongs your grief
Tortures with its odd pace
And yet time is ignorant
Its greatest weapon
The set limit
Allotted to us all
Is a blessing
Only when our time is done
Are we free
It can’t understand
That death is not the worst.
And there is its fear
Death
The greatest end
A fear shared by all,
Or only those ignorant of its meaning
The uncertainty
The crushing nothingness
To not exist
Who said this is the way
Where is it written death is the end
We don’t know
We’ve never peered
Beyond the veil
And I will not fear to.
Time fears itself
Cannot understand
That though it has always been
It will not always be
For as we know when things begin
The always have an end
Time is no exception
Will you cry
When your time is up
Will you beg for mercy
An extension
Or will you greet death
As if an old friend?