I've had Time sweep me up
from my squandering it
ladling me with stillness consummate.

I've had Time punish me
in slogging eons
inside racking boredom.

She has sat with me
often my only friend
soothing my brow
telling me
that She will make things right
in her Time.

She swept up my kids
so soon from infants
through toddler-hood
to Children Gone.

She's whispered to me
in Still Time
of my follies and wrongs
my over-bearing triumphs
my begrudged humilities
earned and given me
by her and Life.

And she
in the end
is my final arbiter
in whose arms
I shall lay
to receive her final kiss;

there I'll give her my wishless wish
which is that she end with me
such that
my time
and her time
shall forever
remain
co-terminus;

but I know this will not be so;
she will close my eyes
amid such promises
which she will never keep
because she knows Human Beings
cannot contemplate
being without her
as she proceeds
with new allotments
for those who come after
and the kids.

'Never' she said to me
"are they ready to leave me.
But I always fail to make them apprehend
the Grandest Secret
of all
and that secret is
all of the atoms
in their bodies
fly away
only to return
inside someone's elses heart.

'Time, 'she said
properly understood
is Time 
of the
Eternal Return
nothing is ever gained
nothing ever lost
all is
merely
rearranged.

"Take from this" she said
"Measured Joy
and whatever
solice
you can
and understand
every leaving
involves
a return.