Time's Shadowy List

Contrary to popular myth, Einstein did NOT reject the existence of Time, but he did reject the differences of its elements, stating that "the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion" ... TIME ... Is a phantom with many faces It drifts, a blotchy mist from our early years The cognizance of self-awareness like a patchwork quilt Most memorable moments shining like warm sunlight Mundane and everyday, a foggy swirl, as we slowly become ... ourselves Memories splicing together like a movie in our mind ... We learn and experience, as the images from memory clarify All flowing like a rill to who and what and where we are It is an invisible, ghostly yardstick Chopped up into segments that we build actuality around An ethereal inchworm, crawling at the pace we allow it We watch it, breathless, wondering what branch it will take What it will make or show of the now or then or later It is beastly wraith that controls and objectifies all we do We are powerless before it, yet we worship it with our every heartbeat It is a monster in the dark A horrid creature under the bed, waiting to grab our ankles And pull us into the bleak, oily black of oblivion It dances in the dark of night Wearing the skin of our hopes, and the mask of our dreams Laughing at promise like a mad moon laughs at the tides It is a demon, immutable and brazen The unchangeable mirror of our mistakes and pains and decisions Thumbing its nose at our cold conscience And yet, it is an angel, too That carries on its wings the brightest of thoughts The joys and loves and friendships that sustain us Bright sparkles on the wave tops of what was, treasured and golden And though we strain with all our might and marrow We can never touch those many faces For no sooner have we gazed on its visage than it has turned away No sooner do we see it approach - smiling, waving, affirming Than it has flashed by us in a swirl It is our god and our devil Our hope and our despair Our villain and our lover The keeper of our consciousness, moments and prospects Our precise measure of what can NEVER be measured And the universal spirit of existence That will never, ever ... exist. ~ 1st Place ~ in the "Writing Challenge 3, July 2019 - List" Poetry Contest, Dear Heart, Judge & Sponsor.