Moments pass through us; years applaud
Where gods like scattered ashes vie
To vex this shell of flesh and blood
Determined to live and to die
Change is a constant changeless truth
Nothing immune to farewell’s schemes
Intent on draining days and youth
While refurbishing Time with dreams
How often we look back, agape
At the deftness of day-to-day
And run our thought across the shape
Of another year brushed away
…and then we look ahead, but none
Can see beyond the Now and Here
Where soon the breadth of It is gone
Though Now can never disappear
Here faith and fear, both unrestrained
Vexes and vouches walk and talk
Of footwork not as straight and trained
As the steady march of the clock
…where moments move through us, breath-shod
Future eclipsed with each exhale
In this transport from sod to God
To that which none can mete or scale
© Janet Martin
