Before you, there was time.

Back when I was born, we…but ah!

You will never understand back.

Back is where the memories live.

You will only know now, and your memories

Will always be fresh and flow steadily by.

 

But if you should one day wonder

How your grandmother lived…

Planets whirled through space

And life was scheduled around them.

Predictable. Solemn.

Minutes became hours,

Hours became days,

Days became years,

Years became the measure of a life.

 

Your little life is new, but soon

your awareness will grow, and there will be

No days or nights to mark time’s passage.

Memories will flow around you like a river

And then be gone. No summoning

Will bring them back to the now, because

There is only now, and the past will not fit here.

Only the elders will recall how it used to be.

Soon we will all be gone.

 

Time, the container of life itself, is gone.

Your life like my own is mercurial,

running in all directions at once.

There is no past or future.

There are no bounds to hold life in,

To create order and meaning,

To take your measure and name you

Worthy or beyond hope.

To let us rely on one another.

 

I shelter you in my arms and sing,

Emphasizing the rhythm, the steady beat.

Once rhythm mattered. It marked time.

Maybe you will understand. Time gave us rhythm.

Let this beat enter your blood. Remember if you can.

I had an age once, and it gave credentials.

No longer. Sadly, you will only see what I become,

And will never see what I used to be.

Stay close, for soon will be my time to go.

You will see me only dimly, for a moment,

with your eyes of now unable to look forward or back.