Time won’t come out to play
It won’t bargain
for a return trip
or make an exchange of
…a year, a week, a day
For any reason
No matter how devout
Wrongly condemned prisoners
Released after decades
Must hate time
For not opening up
And giving back
what everyone agrees
should not have been taken
Or a persistent old scientist rediscovering
a forgotten element
He once encountered as a young lab assistant
The one that could have made all the difference to his life
experiment
Killjoy time
Has firm rules against a do-over.
And I suppose it likes having sayings written about itself…
If I knew now what I
knew then…
Making up for lost
time…
Since time won’t play along
I compensate in the present
Willing as much experience
into a single moment
as can be allowed.
Take that -- time.
