Awakening Time
by Odin Roark

At night, there’s a strange silence
in an empty airport.

I’m reminded of how I was asleep back then,
for I was asked to believe wealth was everything,
the quintessential measure of control,
that luxuries that could stave off Time.

I'm now awake,
and see no difference
between duration's myriad clock faces
and what they do.

See, there's my Omega watch.
Tells time.
Never needs winding
Yet, like my Timex and Cassio
(Now in a drawer packed away,
awaiting their own ticker deaths)
they’re all but slave driver instruments of Time

Yes...

I've learned the hard way.
Time is time, however way it's recorded.
High quality watch.
Economy style throw-away.
Makes no difference.
In the end, their purpose merely leaves behind
unrealized time.

Had this car.
It ran, but transmission whined,
sometimes hesitated,
like my "love" life back then.
Just wheels changing lanes,
eventually exhausting the paved surface,
returning to its essence,
sand and gravel
Raw.

Used to fly private Learjets.
Now there's this latest model Airbus A380
a 21st century people-mover,
where eight hundred pairs of eyes
peer out the windows.

Chronology continues happening below
the tiny dots of life,
swallowed by the shadow
of this behemoth with wings,
floating across the oceans,
racing the sun,
reminding me and my watch
Nature's way can't be out-run
or bought.

I glance down at my tattered hiking map,
and my still maturing eyes are rewarded.

I've crossed many a mountain,
time's ancient recorder,
and like a giant hourglass
of unpredictable movement,
I’ve watched mass weaken.
Rocks tumble.
Scree flows.
Sand become valley-seashores.
unbridled birth and renewal continues.

But...
It's getting late.

At night,
with the sun long hidden
below horizon's edge,
I gaze at a star-filled forever
as I habitually remove my faithful watch,
And pocket it.

Upon sunrise,
I'll fit the silver and gold’s life-sentence back on,
listen to the "click" of the titanium clasp,
await the day's passenger-rush to board their plane,
and I suppose, like always, I’ll try and use the hours well,
take another shot at outdistancing time.
What is it about empty airports?