Time Bearer

He slowly made his aged way
Towards me. He moved stiffly, leaning
On his staff; his hair was gray
I knew why he came, his appearence meaning
Another year of mine had passed away.

When I was young I strained my eyes
To see him, and it seemed he so slowly came
That a thousand years I lived from sunrise to sunrise.
My summers long, and winters just the same.
And I hardly noticed him in his oddly familiar guise.

But after several years of mine
I'd handed over, to send him on his endless walk,
I noticed that to a faster pace he was inclined
Slightly less eager to pause on his way to talk,
A new hint of sparkle in those eyes that had been blind

And as I danced through the passing years
Which he came faster to collect,
My steps slowed by many joys and tears,
His sped up. I began to suspect
That as my youth faded, his appeared.

As as my hair whitened his turned to wheat.
Steps as elastic as mine were slow,
And now our meetings were bittersweet
As he swiftly on his rounds would go,
My steps as shaken as they once were meet.

At the last I had no fear--
I walked to meet his child's self
To give to him the gift of my last year
And seeing him grasped that there I saw myself
But while mine were mostly blind his eyes, my eyes, were clear.

Foresworn

When death must come before dishonor
This honor bestowed to the unborn
Circumstances and all that follow
Leave only dead, or those foresworn