As one gets older
Getting older seems to change.
Time no longer passes
The way a car passes,
Getting smaller in the distance,
Concentrating,
Consolidating; the thing
That passed a moment ago
And the spot that dots the road’s end
And disappears.

Time fades.

Getting older is a hopeless charge –
Holding the door
Against the flow
Of waters arising against the house
With lock not set
Or once set and now broken
And no one to call
For help
And no one to wait for
Alone with the rising waters
And the waning strength
Every moment
A moment lost
And the door,
Cracked by the weight,
Every leaking drop a wedge
Driven into the yaw
By the beating rain
The falling sky.

Beyond the pale of the face
That strains against the rising waters
That holds
Almost holds
Almost
Against the tide
And the time that is the worst of it.
Holding almost against the waters,
Marking time until
The time that was
Is gone
And every dripping instant
Is.

Rushing waters bear
Away resistance.

Jay Duret