Dance to the Clock

Dance to the Clock
Yussra MT Ebrahim
1/20/2017

do you hear it?
the clock
does it make your throat tighten?
do you see the numbers
changing?
doesn't it frighten?

does it humble you
rumble your heart and your soul
to see how long you've been here
as though in control?

time is unsettling
but please fear it not
just do what you can
with whatever you've got

doesn't it please you
to flip through your archive?
see that even before now
all that time spent alive
you stood for what's good
and were trying to thrive

welcome it
welcome it
feel the time pass
you are the student
and life is the class!

and it's beautiful
even when mundane or hard
even when the years become
too much to disregard

every year heavier than the one before
the weight increasingly tough to ignore
to pretend there is no end is to waste your own days
for you are here, this is real, this is for sure

you will die
you are brief
yet what a relief
it would be to your soul
should you live with a goal

it is way too easy
to tune out a clock
though it's never stopped ticking
each reminder is a shock

the ticking
tocking
overwhelming
unending song
the longer it gets
oh, the less it feels long

the tricky, tacky
sweet and wacky
nectar of life on Earth
it is precisely
its brevity
that gives it its worth

cool and odd
thank you God
we are here to try
to care about our time here
to think about the why
what we do now matters
and it matters that we die

especially since the end
is a new bridge to traverse
as we head back to our origin
our actions get there first

so do you hear it?
the clock
the crucial metronome
how about we dance to it
all the way home?