Time's Tango

The marsh is filled with eventide

And nature’s waning will

The grinning bloom betrayed by Time

Slumbers where all is still

The doggerel of august day

And cricket minuet

Midst wind and leaf-song falls away

Etched in thought’s silhouette

A metronome of moments fills

Then steals another hour

A chorus spilling daffodils

Soon strips the autumn bow’r

As dividends of quickened youth

And ageless wanderlust

Declares in nature’s ruthless truth

Life’s journey back to dust

The imminence of what must be

In every half-breath nears

Where nothing marks eternity

Or charts its days and years

Time’s tango teases and torments

It’s touch both kind and cruel

Somewhere its final recompense

Unravels from life’s spool

© Janet Martin