Time

 
“Time”
 
I looked on you as though you were a wishing star
As you sat beside him in the front seat of your car.
The look you gave was more than words could say
And you looked again as he drove you away.
I’m sorry I didn’t have the courage to say what I longed to say.
I feel like time is moving fast, and all we do is delay.
 
Sweet, orphaned child who shall never be ours,
Water this grave’s wilting, white flowers.
Lover dear, you are beautifully in my fortune
I never could quite treat you like an option.
And I felt the regret, the pain of you alone
I feel that ache as though it were my own.
 
And I grasp your shadow as it is lengthening
In the first twilight of the spring.
I am afraid of longing for that caress
As with grace we share our loneliness.
I cannot walk this path without your hand
Without you to look into my eyes, and understand
That my will is thine, and my heartbeat is a song
That kisses your name for as short a time as life is long.
 
Time is turning these pages anew,
And I pray the next I write for you
Will not be a pean of the past—
But that shall color the book’s last
Line with what was a life well spent,
Oh! God. Where the time went
I have not a clue—but still I cannot say
What I long to say,  
And time is fast,  
And all we do is delay.  
 
© 2022 Marten Hoyle