Where Does the Time Go?

Where does the time go?

Where does it run to?

How can so many days

And hours and seconds

And years speed by

When suddenly old happens.

What is old anyway?

It’s more than wrinkles

And grey hair.

It’s more than arthritis And hip replacements.

It’s remembering black and white

Television,

And cars the size of tanks.

It’s faded photos

That weren’t taken on a phone.

It’s laughing at the computer voice

On Star Trek

Because we now have

Alexa and Siri who tell us the weather

And how to spell pneumonia.

Old crept up or rather

Raced up

And settled in my hip.

And my eyes and ears.

It crept up on other people too.

Rock stars now look like grandpas.

Actresses have shrink-wrapped skin

And balloon lips.

Once boyish politicians have jowls

And bald spots.

This is lost on the youth

Of the world.

The perennially fresh-faced crowd

With new ideas which are really

Old ideas in a slicker package.

Do they know how fast it all goes?

I was told. I was warned.

But paid no attention.

Why worry about some future

When right now

Is so easy,

So breezy?.

Life so lush and full

Stretching ahead.

Plenty of time

To be successful,

Fall in love,

Change the world.

Until one day

It disappears.

A breathless moment

Growing, blooming

Fading.

A dandelion in the wind.

Where does the time go?

The moments shimmer away

Dissolving into memories,

Phantom images

Dreamlike thoughts

Of long ago.