Wednesday 21 November 2012

Time

A lover weeping by a brook
Began to quench his crying thirst –
   “Who would credit all the woe
   When the best becomes the worst?
      My princess with a look,
      With a fatal, final ‘No,’
Has turned to ashes in my mouth
         This summer taste,
And fallen to a July drouth
         Where none can sing
Our country life is now a waste.”
A starling with a broken wing
   Said, “No matter what you say
   Time will wash it all away.”

A recent patient from his bed
Surveyed the hospital with fear –
   “What if I should die tonight,
   Who will care or shed a tear?
      The pain that’s in my head
      Like an active piece of light
Prompts the question that I put.”
         His neighbour who
Had stirred the waters with his foot
         Put off his death
And did as much as he could do.
He whispered through his failing breath,
   “Say the worst that you can say,
   Time will wash it all away.”

Heraclitus strode the hill
Muttering to an empty sky,
   “Life is what approaches fire,
   To fall away is then to die.
      The wolf which makes a kill
      Let loose upon a byre
May dip its teeth within the blood,
         But when the snows
Have turned the northern fields to mud
         The frozen stream
Will sing beneath the ice, ‘Suppose,’
Become as distant as a dream.
   After we have had our say
   Time will wash it all away.”

A watcher on the final night
Felt solid earth beneath his shoe –
   “Cosmic Mother, ever stern,
   Tell your creatures what’s to do.
      Will this rocky height
      On which we stand and learn
Survive the portents of the stars?
         Our children cry,
More terrified than in the wars,
         ‘O let us live
That we might put our sadness by.’”
The dying sun exploded with:
   “There is nothing you can say,
   Time will wash it all away.”

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© August 1980