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CLICK, CLICK ... Click, click ... I wasn't doing a thing, and Click, click ... There it came again. Just Passing by the kitchen with a Glance so ever slight at the Red imposing digits from the Coffee-maker, bright Click, click ... Though it didn't make a sound Click, click ... Only silence all around Still I see the numbers change From one minute to the next And I suddenly acknowledge that I Feel a scant perplexed ... when Thinking over years of when I've Watched the hours pass ... and Never for a second did I Even want to stop To think of what occurs to me on This, another day, another of so Many I've so freely thrown away Click, click ... Though not a sound assails me Even still I'd make it stop ... and Crunch those tireless gears to cease Reminders of my lot, that Everything they said is true, who Once would give advice ... that I was nothing special, I could vanish in a trice... Click, click ... 2 Impossible, I blustered, it was Surely a mistake ... Or maybe only thought it -- surely I would get a break; For wasn't I at least a little Better than the Plan? Invincible I was, and quite Impervious to all, Especially any warnings that it Also would befall This quite uncommon specimen So different from the rest ... for Surely those in charge could see That I, at least, was blest? Click, click ... They wouldn't make so grave a slight, I knew for sure back then, To limit such potential -- Me, an honorable man! Whoever pulled the strings was surely As convinced as I, that Such a vibrant, useful one Could surely never die ... Such fears, I know, are not so new, The feeling isn't fresh -- Perhaps not even in the days when Thought by Gilgamesh. Click, click ... I maybe lost a little faithClick, click ... Since I'm a ways past twenty-eightClick, click ... Will these reminders never cease?Click, click ... Now, I've got it, would you pleaseJust take a minute from your constant Burden on my soul ... and Try to just remember how you Let me dream so free ... For surely I was not misled -- I was and am the same -- The valiant one, the rising son, I'd earn forever's name! 3
All I feel is change ... I'm Not the one you'd let me think I'd Be in younger days ... I've lost that foolish confidence that Puffs the chest of youth ... for I was silly then and couldn't Recognize the truth ... That you were never there at all, I Only made you be ... So whom have I been praying to, Was ever there an ear? Unfortunately, now I know, For it's both late and clear ... The steps are measured more with care That youth would squander free And fancied flights have Clipped their wings for Practicality. In certain quiet moments I can See all memories past ... The panorama stretches most complete. And there at two or twelve or twenty, Showing me to me ... I turn the pages through until the last Click, click ... It's not as hopeless as it's been: There comes a time when time itself's Less enemy than friend. If wisdom be the death of Young impatience and its waste And all the doubts, the never knowing ... Bring it on, with haste. Then I can face that demon clock Which held me once in fear And banish apprehension once, for all: Then, Click: For knowing, really knowing is the Value in the age ... And mine's the hand That writes upon the wall.
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