TIME-THOUGHT

     Time is not
     in just a season or a place
     to be dancing itself dead --
             for it hangs
                     even in the pauses
                     of its merriment.

     Time neither
     asks nor gives
     takes away, nor replaces itself...
             as easily does a woman
             comb and brush anew
                     the strands of yesterday
                     into a better arrangement.

     For though we may or might or try
     -- all our pleasurable yearnings
     appeased or pleaded --
             cannot bring time back,
             to amend or break itself again
             to renew, or repeat...

                     as broken was a vase,
                     that could no longer be
                     nor be re-pieced...
                     as was it was before
                             complete:

                                                     so
                                               carelessly
                                                 crushed.