Sweet Time

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Listen now and heed me well
To this tragic, timeless tale—
We’ve all lost loved ones
To distance and death
And occasionally, to circumstance.
Or just by believing there was time,
Sweet, sweet time, always time,
To visit and while away that time.
Yes, all the time in the world,
Static, breathless, endless time
I believed—
When I was young.

Years pass by in the blink of an eye,
And you notice one day
How many have died.
Gone, all gone, with time’s treacherous tides,
Their scattered, ivory bones picked clean
And carried away into death’s dawn.
Time, sweet time, and them—
Now gone.

Time is not so sweet anymore,
You long for the grim reaper
To knock upon your door,
And drag you away,
You care not where,
Over here, over there, anywhere.
It makes no difference,
Any place will do
As long as it is far away
From this world now without you—
And you and you and you.
Far too many yous
Have stepped beyond the veil.
And you contemplate,
Anticipate—

Do they frolic upon some sandy shore,
No aches, no pains,
No worries anymore?
Is there a chair saved just for you
At the table where they meet?
All say a prayer upon that beach,
Good bread, good meat,
Good God, let’s eat.
Teeth young and sharp,
Do they tear into food?
And lusty, not rusty,
Into each other too?
And be not at the mercy
Of fickle, tricky time,
For in this hallowed place
There is no time.
Just laughter and love
And the joining of friends,
God knows I long for that—
As I long for the end.

©2023 jai

Image by clariston from Pixabay

18 thoughts on “Sweet Time”

  5. When you’re in your teens, they call you a young adult. In your 20s the same. You’re arrogant and brash, and stupid, and wasteful of time. Then the 30s arrive and no one calls you young anymore, not old yet, but no longer young. 40s have now been broached and you’re suddenly middle-aged. 50s and you’re a senior and able to receive 10% discounts on Tuesdays (if you remember to ask for them). And just like that, you’re relegated to a different class, treated differently than before. It isn’t over, yet, but it’s definitely different. The years fly by faster and faster, almost a blur. Nature is breaking you down now (if society hasn’t already), preparing you to accept death with open arms. Those sights, sounds, and smells of youth so bright and vibrant are now dulled, softened, weakened. We embrace memories like old friends now and watch real friends pass away from us, forever. No one told me this when I was a kid, and I doubt I would’ve understood it anyway. 💀🖤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • My sweet, beautiful mother tried to tell me, but like you said, I didn’t understand. She and I had many interesting conversations when I was a young adult and into my middle years…before she died. My father was a kind and wise man. He and I had some good talks about life and aging as well. But his words went in one ear and out the other. I don’t think what you described so eloquently (that I experienced as well) can be explained; we have to experience it for ourselves. And lord, the fuck-ups we make along the way! And the hidden scars that get carved into our souls. I have been well-prepared for death for some time, and like I’ve told a few close friends—I don’t care what comes after. Either everything that is me will wink out of existence on any and all plains, or I go to hell. Either scenario is fine with me.
      In the meantime, I take a small slice of happiness or peace wherever I can find it. It’s all a lot of us can do. 🖤

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

      • There seems to be some mounting evidence of reincarnation; children that remember past lives that have been confirmed to have really existed. Some anecdotal evidence of children with expert-level skills, fluent secondary languages, and no training. I like to hope that may be the case, though I have died once and know what it feels like, and only remember darkness, nothingness. 💀🖤

        Liked by 1 person

      • You died once? That was probably most unpleasant to say the least….the remembering of it, especially since it didn’t involve “a light” that others have spoken of. I’m curious how it came about, but if you’d rather not say, I understand.
        I hold out a glimmer of hope for reincarnation as well. When I was a kid, for years, in the dreams I recalled, I was always a boy/man. When I got older, it crossed my mind that perhaps in a previous life, I was male. 🖤

        Liked by 1 person

      • I had tachycardia that came and went for a few days and then got stuck at 174 bpm for over 24 hours before I finally called an ambulance. The EMT couldn’t get my heart rate down, so he administered a medication that stopped my heart, so they could effectively reset it. They shocked me back to life with their defibrillators. When my heart stopped it felt like a black hole opened up in my chest and sucked ‘me’ into it. A very strange overall experience to say the least.

        Liked by 1 person

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