That Cruel Angel, Time

When you are merely a child,

time is like a slow-moving tortoise

that carries you on its back.

It takes you through a field of wonders and curiosities,

filled with the fresh scent of morning dew.

You push and shake the tortoise,

eager to see what comes beyond the horizon,

but the stubborn beast still walks in its 

slow,

methodic

ways.

You wait impatiently, venturing deeper into the field

where a year feels like eons,

and yesterday decades away.

As you grow older, 

you leave behind that old beast,

time transforms into a falcon that carries you away swiftly.

You’re suddenly soaring above the world,

and every memory you make 

is merely a blur that passes by.

Life is but a zephyr that stays by your side,

you feel invincible with the world below your feet.

Without warning,

the falcon drops you from the top of the world,

leaving you tumbling through the wind.

As you fall to your demise,

life becomes a gale,

and then a hurricane.

You land in the ocean and darkness envelops you,

as you struggle to swim through the abyss,

you forget about time.

Years go by and you’re stuck in the same place,

doing the same things over and over again.

Time,

a cruel angel,

has stripped decades from you.

When you finally struggle your way back to shore, 

you stumble upon an old tortoise.

yet as you cling onto the tortoise once more,

a sense of serenity befalls you.

As you’re being carried through the field once again,

the nostalgic scent of the evening mist overwhelms you.

The field has grown old, 

yet you remember it so vividly.

Time,

like a slow-moving tortoise

carries you on its back,

but this time you yearn no longer

to see what’s ahead,

for you wish to rest now

before time’s everlasting tread.