passing time

It seems thoughts do not exist in isolation: one thought has a way of nudging another. So it may not look like it, but this is one poem about the death of a friend, my first, best friend, long ago.

Truth is,
Time just keeps everything from happening at once
don't matter how fast you go, that doesn't change
truth is,
there’s no beginning without an end
No end without a beginning
Truth is,
All else is uncertain
A passing thought I find comforting

Eternity, this ego centered life
sets my teeth on edge
Like a ghost springing from the shadows
finding I can neither ignore or kill it

A time up
A time down
Life is about taking turns

I can’t remember being born
And dying may well be the same
ending as it begins

History is peopled
With those who
knew the sunrise
saw the sun set

Ronnie was a good boy
And a bad man
pissed the bed
Got drunk
killed a cop
hung himself in his cell
dying all alone

Sometimes I sit up all night waiting for the dawn
For the dark to turn to gray rose
For the reflection in my window to go away
For the rumbling roll of a distant train