Monday, January 10, 2011

Mortality Sonnet 1-09-11


When I say “always” to the one I love,
It means with luck right now 35 years --
A teardrop in Time’s bucket, a mote of
Dust in God’s eye too small to summon tears.
I say “forever” and it means until
The stars die, which will come long after my
Life teeters and falls from Death’s windowsill
Like a brief smothered taper from the sky.
“Forever” and “always” are magic words
We use to make ourselves blind to this truth:
Time is the wolf who savages all herds
And every hour we breathe we feel his tooth.
Of this one dead-sure thing we never talk:
Our lives are instants in forever’s clock.

Copyright 2011 Matthew J Wells

1 comment:

KB said...

"Time is the wolf who savages all herds
And every hour we breathe we feel his tooth." - One of my favorite two lines of poetry in recent memory...awesome.