Is Time
The Earth was dark under the waning moon,
That hot summer night in early June.
Body upright, feet on the ground,
I walked to the river not making a sound.
The water flowed like cotton on a loom;
Sparkling diamonds under the silvery moon,
Glistening like stardust atop silent waves,
Beckoning into its depths the valiant and the slaves.
The rhythm of the river drew me closer;
Enchanting tunes of the greatest composer,
Took my feet into the icy water,
Reeling me in like cattle to the slaughter.
The heavens cracked open with heavy downpour,
First came lightning, then the thunderous roar,
The river rose up and claimed the shore,
Never had I seen such weather before.
The waves then parted to the left and right,
And she emerged from the river; a beautiful sight.
She was pale of skin adorned with a headdress of gold,
And her arms coalesced to scythes sharp and cold.
Honey and nectar dripped from the heavens as she sang,
And the song of the siren across the riptides rang.
I was ensnared now in her seductive trance,
I could not summon even an illusion of a chance.
The icy water coiled around my arm,
Moving to the whims of her serpentine charm,
Pulling me down under with torrential rain.
She said, “Come and I shall purge you of your pain”
Into the gloomy darkness did I sink,
For what seemed like an eternity I think,
Till everything around me suddenly and inexplicably froze,
And a booming voice from above declared —
“Time flows”
The hands of my watch now ticked back,
As I was pulled back out of the river’s track.
The tendrils of the river freed my arm, no lie,
And the raindrops raced now back to the sky.
Back on the riverside I now stood,
I’d taken a walk through time as I understood.
A purple sphere had formed before me,
Each second inside dilated to infinity.
I spotted inside a figure the same shade of the sphere;
I knew not which devil now to fear,
A glowing emerald adorned his rune-scribed mace,
He was a transcendent being with all but a face.
With his mighty weapon he then struck down,
The Naga Siren locked in her timeless frown.
And proceeded to speak in a voice older than time,
Echoing across the cosmos in otherworldly rhyme:
“Is time not greater than the wills of men you bend?
Is time not both the beginning and the end?
Is time not this realm’s truest life giver?
Is time not the universe’s greatest known river?”
