LX

If there are 60 seconds in a minute;

60 minutes in an hour,

then, perhaps, 60 years in a life

could free me to move beyond the bevel

of the calibre of my mortality.

Tap my foot to the tick-tick-tick

of the escapement

that keeps me measuring life

in seconds, minutes, hours, days, years.

Time - ever in motion.

A miracle really as I wasn't born with natural quartz

but rather a human hear,

bone and sinew,

grit and faith.

I've spent a lifetime on either side of the crystal.

Making myself small enough to fit inside,

forming the illusion of safety.

Or smashing the glass until I bloody my hands,

forming the ingredients for change and maybe healing.

Understanding is a timesaver I never mastered;

too many gears of fate, humanity,

and best intentions.

Oh, but how I try to balance myself

just so

to reach the space between the hairspring.

But life's so fast.

People so unpredictable.

God is the Master of Horology.

I have to be content

with a gear-tooth prick of my finger.

Just a drop of metal discernment

before I lay my head to sleep.

I am Aurora, but ever awake,

as the tick-tick-tick of my soul

continues.

Cursed need to know... something... anything.

Sixty... Sixty-one... Sixty-two...

Counting as a pretense for control.

Holding my breath

as the clepsydra flows.