time

Now (Audio)

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Once bright.  Source of strength and direction.  Once comforter.  Now quietly desperate.

Stoic face.  Bruised Soul.  Bright smile with dead eyes.

No relief.

Sources of joy now steal strength like the opening of a vein.

Shallow half breaths maintain the body between sighs.

Life is played in minor chords, note by excruciating note.

Time has slowed to the pace of the geologic.

Existence is marked by the rise and fall of continents.

Minutes, hours, days, weeks, even years have no meaning and pass unmarked – unnoticed.

There is only now.

And it has settled upon him like the damp, dark earth.

The Picture – Fifty One and Five Sixths

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I am not accustomed to seeing myself

Looking at that photo, appraising it with no reference except itself

Shyness arose and I averted my eyes

But curiosity sent my gaze back again

Who was that looking back at me

There under the flesh of my fathers

Hint of recognition

Something in the eye seemed familiar

Confused, I wondered how he could have come to wear that dressing

I have been here the whole time and had not noticed the change

If indeed that was him, where had he been

Why is he only now looking into my eyes

It startled me, a jolt of “Is that really you?”

Is it?

The eyes looked back at me unwavering

Then I saw him

There beneath the effects of all those years

I smiled a toothy grin of welcome and of coming home

He asked “Are you ready now?”

I said “Let’s go!”