A Time To Write About Time Poem by RIC BASTASA

how do you write time? as simple as asking what time is it?
and then you look at your watch and say
without much thinking about how time passed swiftly and how
it affected you leaving you another lock of white hair
and sense of nostagia of
i am left out here and i have done nothing about the passing of time

it is 8: 17 in the morning, you hear some roosters still cocking out
their maleness to the hens laying their eggs in the warmth of their
quest for more of them

scrambled eggs and scratches on the grass for food

now finally i have found time to write about time
for eyes to look into my own eyes for hands to work on my own hands

time swiftly passes by
and i have noticed more wrinkles on my hands, more lines on my
forehead, eyebags, weakened knees, blisters on my feet, sagging cheeks, falling flesh on my arms,

my heart beats faster on the worry of
i have not done well enough and time passed by leaving me away
with this feeling of

there they are on happy faces with children and grandchildren
and birthdays and deaths and graduations and anniversaries

where are we my dear? we are in this house where there are only
two of us left
we are watching tv and this advertisement on milk for old age
and new born babies

how can we relate to the time that i am writing? i sit beside you,
i hug you again (for the nth time of this almost 30 years of being
together)

i turn off the tv, and let the silence be with us again
i hold your hand, and tell you the usual sweetest words
your name, i always say your name
and my name, you always call me by my name

i hold your hand, your head on my shoulder, we sit together
facing the sunset on the sea on the horizon where birds are flying towards their own nests

it is 5: 15 p.m., time is not freezing. it need not stop just like the
way we really want it