The Net of Time

THE NET OF TIME Time allows no second starts No dress rehearsals or understudy parts I cannot escape the net of time Einstein found the net is curved - sublime; But still a net. Space travelers escape the world yet Not time’s inexorable shape Unlike a clock we have no mechanism for escape* Even the miracle computer - Aladdin’s lamp polished With genies’ voices and distance abolished - I touch the key and travel the web: Its floating silken mesh can rise or ebb. When the day is young it seems an endless spacious net But it crowds and tightens with the sunset. In the hauling hands of the fisherman’s motion I will be taken from this ocean We can measure our pathetic short term and mark Our scoresheet with crosses and ticks But when the last tick sounds in the dark And the ocean meets the Styx . . . . . . We seek not to escape - If we have learned to wear the cape Of love, if we have no fear, We can change the measure, Listen through the lattice to a different hymn. It’s not how long I could swim - It’s how the other swimmers felt When I with them dwelt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Note *Old fashioned mechanical clocks all had a ratchet used as an “escape mechanism” which helped ensure regularity in ticking.