Different Slants

Seeing the World from a New Angle

In the Time I Have Left

Filed under: Uncategorized — Bob at 2:10 pm on Saturday, March 5, 2022

by Robert M. Katzman © January 19, 2022

 

There is so much light

I want to experience

I have grown to 

Love my friends

Because Time

Like flame 

Both destroys and distills

Transforming

Those who remain

Into crystal

Transparent

Beautiful

And 

So fragile

I want to feel

The invisible

Sensuality

of

Air flowing over me

Both the warm moisture

of the

 Red Sea 

at the 

Tip of Israel

The crisp earthiness 

of

Dying leaves and successive

Waves of Mountains

In 

Vermont

I want

The lines in the 

Highways

To disappear under

My speeding 

Black wheels

As I race to

Every

Art Museum

In the world

Driving over oceans

Seeking Time

To wait

Wait a few more moments

Just for me

I want to 

Feel the embrace

of 

Disintegrating Barns

Shafts of light

Piercing the interior

As if under assault

by the 

Spears of Spartans

Centuries of

Wooden walls

So dry

They seem to

Suck the life

From my flesh

I think Sleep

So unwanted 

in my youth

As if dipping 

One’s Toe

Into a frozen stream

Grows with me

Within me

Its power such

As Time 

Unwinds

It steals Books

From my hands

They fall on my chest

But soundlessly

Sleep interrupts 

My Movies

Conversation

Ambition

Becoming a closer friend

Than 

Any other

It whispers

I know what you need

And it flows

Into my veins

More and more and more

As I age

By the Time 

I die

Sleep and Death

Have intertwined 

So often

One foreshadowing 

The other

That fear of it

Becomes 

Incomprehensible

How can 

Something

So much like 

Something

I’ve loved for 

So long

Sought in my grief

Tasted for decades

Nestled in relief

Be so different

From that which

I will never 

Awake?

 

(Written in my sleep on a Wednesday at 5 am, so disturbing I awoke to write it down, all 312 words)

********

4 Comments »

Comment by Jane Dillon

March 5, 2022 @ 2:36 pm

Lovely Bob!

Comment by Don Larson

March 5, 2022 @ 7:10 pm

Clearly visible to me.

Don

Comment by Brad Dechter

March 6, 2022 @ 7:16 am

I loved the writing- I plan to sleep on its meaning! In the meantime, keep them coming! Another reason to not go gently into the night huh?
Brad

Comment by janet

March 6, 2022 @ 7:12 pm

wow that says so much and for so many stages of life YET a feeling of peace emanates and perhaps a bit of a prophetic message .Thanks for sharing , it has made a feeling of happiness.

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