Snapshot

A breach

Subtle as a breath

Whisks a fraction of time

Away from its stream

Leaving behind a silent frame

In the wake of its run.

Surrounding the stillness

With a wisp from memory

Lies this magnificent trick

From the present

To graze the past

And smile the light of day

In futures to come.

This pause

Symbolic

And deliberate

Endures

Living through each moment

Deepening its well

Of character and life

Of mystery and wonder

And displaying that catch of a second

Cupped in the hands of Time.

That snapshot

Weathered and rusted

Clutches that sacred fragment

Of the occasion

Designed by the moment

To outlive its existence

And to persist the breadth of each new day

Sharpening its splendor

And washing all those

Gazing mutedly within it

With delicate ecstasy

Diffused by the unmalleable reality

Of a Present, from the Past

Playing like a projection

And perceiving the miracle

That Change,

Time's old mate

Devises.

Each particle

Solidifies in the mind

To create its brilliant station

As a recollection

Sanctified

And accomplishes its absolute

In function

Intention

And purpose.

This animate spot

Spills into a tranquil halt

To be perpetually frozen

In its truth

And simplicity

Contained within

And experienced

Witnessed

As an incredulous marvel

Through its image.

Timely Untimely

What if you could mix up Time?
And live your Present in the Past?
Would you wander through the Future a while
And live your Past last?

Could the Past translate into the Future
Into the Present and back to the Past?
Would you move back from the Past or ahead from the Future
And filter the Present unasked?

Would you dive in & out through the tunnels of Time
And change what you didn’t like?
Your fights with Mom, your school, your boss
And date Steve instead of Mike?

Would you marry 5 times and live out each life
Just for fun, then return to the start?
Or would you age younger, from 40 to 20
Then loop it, 6 months apart?

Would you visit the Greats, the Legends of Ago
Be they Sportsman, Musician or King?
Or would you step ahead to see who’s next
Who’ll rule, play or sing?

Would you change your profession and visit reunions
Each time with a different history?
Would you change your hairstyle the moment it’s cut
And do the same with your whiskery?

How many times would you change your choices?
Would you even choose to die?
Would you hop, skip and jump through Time for all time?
And never let Time just go by?

Would you ever live with one decision you’ve made
And live with it unaltered?
Or would you rewind the good times and fast forward the pain
And smudge out the times you faltered?

How many lives would you live in one life?
Would life even be complete?
Would years, months or seconds even mean anything now?
Would age become obsolete?

It would be amusing if you traversed alone
But what if everyone learned to travel?
Whose Present would affect whose Future or Past?
How then would Time unravel?

There would be no system, there’d be only chaos
Like a washing machine, only stranger
What once was, would change with each person
A castle could become a manger

What is up, would be sideways, and sideways would be down
What would Life be in a world so suspended?
You’d never know anything for sure, if it’s real
Or how it began, developed or ended

You would never learn the lessons of Time
You would never truly Live
Because this would be a selfish life
Like give & take, without the give

You may not get older, like Dorian Gray
But ageing will always be different from growing
You think you can outsmart Time in Its game
But presuming is always different from knowing

You’ll never know what True Joy is
An experience of ‘Just One Time’
Because ‘One’ is what Time really is
Past – Present – Future sublime.

[Written: 3:30 am, 28th June 2009]