the frenemy

Isn't it sad that time is fleeting?
Every moment we have can be taken away in a flash.
That flicker of happiness or spark of deep and undiscriminating love
Snatched from our fingertips
Like a pendulum-swinging life rope just out of reach.
We try to hold on.

But what is the alternative?
Pause the instant and savor it forever...
An endless spoonful of your favorite dessert.
It knows no end or beginning.
It has no past or future.
We are perpetually stuck in that precious perfection
As Sisyphus pushed the rock up that boundless hill;
A punishment or a reward.

What then?
If flawlessness has peaked, what more is there?
What less?
Maybe time is not only our enemy but our friend-
It lashes out and steals our moment of bliss
But then forgives and chances us for more.
To experience a different sensation,
An unprecedented melange of butterflies and light.

As we struggle to keep these in our memory,
The photographs greying in our brains,
Remember that the hope of tomorrow's moments
Make timelessness unfavorable
And hold the transient unsequestered.

He lies next to me sleeping...
I am happy in this minute
Yet sad for the next.
Will he wake up differently?
Who can promise the sentiment of tomorrow?
None but time
Giving us another opportunity to love.
Live now, live hopefully.

-cmb 06.21.11