Time leaks through the floorboards
The drops splatter on the basement floor
The clocks rain down their minutes
I drown in their downpour
The wasting of the hours
Overflow landfills of what could have been
The drizzle of unused seconds
Pollutes the air that I take in
If only we had seen
The flowing of the years
All the wasted words unsaid
So many unshed tears
The nothings that live within us
That grow through all the times
When we let them leech our souls
From out behind our eyes
Perhaps . . .
For mere seconds worth
Our wills would have stopped the leak
And given us a loan of time
To take the release we seek
To defy the lie that time whispers
With the second hand's every tick:
"Don't worry about the moment lost
For with time, there's always more of it"
And so I waste these hours
Staring blankly at the ceiling
Willing myself to fall asleep
Trying to get my thoughts to stop their reeling
And I listen to the whisper
Of droplets of decades dripping around me
And try not to fight the drowning
Into the waste of time that surrounds me

© Jennifer Hill 2001