Time’s Hand
The foundations of our lives were cast in infancy,
from birth and childhood, nurturing and knowing,
with mother, father, siblings, schooling, learning,
travails and relationships all signifying,
seen in retrospect a fleeting preparation
for the substance of the life that follows,
where the human being, fully flowered, forms,
complete and seasoned, wise and in command.
In maturity, as at the beginning,
which from this summit seems ephemeral,
time still proceeds, giving little chance
to pause and catch hold of each passing gift,
the past vanishing, decades seem as years,
years like minutes, minutes seeming nothing,
unheeding seconds ticking by relentlessly,
as swiftly as they swept us through our growing.
But as in times of earlier formation,
our calling still may be of preparation.
To order earthly things will then be wise,
and dream the world that follows our demise.