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VISITORS
As much as he needed sleephe had grown to dread itfor each night they visited him,always whispering, he strainingto hear if they had wisdom to offeror were simply there to mock,to plague him, as recompense for someimagined sin, some innocent mistakeor simply because eternity canfairly quickly become boring.He knows their number willonly grow over time…
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CH-CH-CH-CHANGES
Walking back through my lifeI can now begin to see when and wherethings changed, where I changed, wherethe place I thought of as my homebecame alien, altered, as thoughthe weathering of time wore awaywhat I now know were carefully appliedveneers, real enough seeming to meand to others who stopped to visit.And when the music changed…
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TEMPUS
The clock chimed the hour.How long had he been here,inside the works of the great timepiecemarking imagined units that had meaningonly for him, for all, for no one?He knew his time was limited, alltime would someday be depletedand then what — that was the questionno one dared ask, everyoneanswered. Time was a mazethere was no…
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TOCK TICK
He was an amateur horologist, so time was important to him. And time had left him with nothing but questions because language, poorly used was far less valuable to him, particularly when it touched on his greatest joy. What, he asked, did time do when it left the army and stopped marching? Why couldn’t he…
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EXPOSURE
Now we choose to love in the dark,our minds unwilling to see whatour bodies now so willingly expose.It is not that our passion has wanedor abated, only that it has elongatedand our concept of time must be suspended .The mind now must concedeto the heart for it understandswhat the body can no longer do.Maturity allows…
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RIDING A TIDAL WAVE
For how long had he been staring?He didn’t know, didn’t need to,time had ceased to matter,carried off on the gravitational tide.He had been walking for daysto get to this place, each stepa new beginning, each going nowhere.He knew he might seek solace here,knew he could never leave,here, now, was his ancestral home.There was a succulence…
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BEING A PART
He wanted, most of all, to bea part of something, butsomething that had never existed,a dissonance in an orderly universethat was slowly devolving into chaos.He was a shadow, seen only by dayand often ignored, not invisible, but nearly so.He would soon emerge from the darkness,welcome the day, the sun’s too briefappearance, his footsteps would echoa…
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STANDING AROUND
They said they would take a stand. They meant to take a stand but they never quite got around to taking a stand. That was the problem with taking a stand, you had to act, you had to stand. So much time passed they forgot they had said they would take a stand. Then they…
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BY MOONLIGHT
We are waiting patiently, for thatis what you have demanded.We have seized your promises, held themdear, we have done your biddingwithout question, without objection, and stillin our moment of need you dessert us.You have turned your face awayfrom us, refused to cast your eyeson us, you hide when we most need youand all too often…