How many watches and clocks will we own
over the breadth of our lifetimes?
can you remember each one?
count them on your fingers
for their manufacturer and model?
the experiences, good or bad
they shared with us?

And how presumptuous
in our immortal conditioning
to assume we possess any timepiece at all
for can any of us truly own time?

Though every clock and watch
in their extended meaning
the ultimate companion
unique to us
in our personalities and habits
the grandest symbiotic relationship
both master and servant
giver and taker of gifts
for the few precious hours we strut and rage
across this Earthly stage

In dark trials and tribulations
any timepiece appearing to move
at an ungodly slow pace
yet in hours of happiness/revel
hands or digits
turning at dizzying speed
while we steadily grow older
the sun seems to move
faster and faster around us
toward an all too soon demise

And while in this
the only certainty appears to be
that the last one to hug our wrist
talk and listen to us
from wall, stove, or electronic device
will in the end outlive its owner

Here ticks the true magic of it all
if we believe in the extended meaning
for beyond this Earthly stage
all those pieces of time will come together
as neither servant or master
but the eternal companion
we had always wished them to be

© 2004
Revised © 2017

800 hits as of March 2024

01/20/2017

Posted on 01/20/2017
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti