Present Day

A poem

Subtracting hours from the days that you hold on your shoulders — wide like wings, your back carries the minutes through the clouds, and your arms hold the precious seconds up for me to see — I then count all the ways in which time expands in your presence to make the loss not seem so great The moments are ours to hold, and you grab them out of the sky as they fly then pass them to me But I can’t bear the gift in equal measure, too quickly do I let it slip through my fingers as I grasp for the next I am always open to receive, so I welcome your weight when you lie upon me, not lifting you up but taking you in It is all that I can do, and I try to carry all that I can carry, if it’s only cradling an instant in my childish hands