O Time

---

O Time

Poem — An Invocation to The Master #128

What change of heart impels thee O Time,
Where gone thy menacing visage gory,
Lost thy vehemence and perpetual fury
That besetted my hours in every clime?

What fever of conscience is upon Thee,
Art thou not immune to emotion?
Whereof this sudden care’s debilitation 
That gnaws into Thee without reprieve?

What ails now memory and imagination,
Thy minions who have harmed me deep?
One an image perfect of future hope
And other replaying regret and rumination.

Thy lances of pain sting me no more
For in long defeat and priceless loss
I have endured thy methods vilely base
And in ruinous fall hold my soul a victor.

What are thy ominous drumbeats to me now,
Only a reminder bell the schoolboy dreads
Or a hunter’s horn an animal hurriedly flees,
In each thy beat my soul inevitably doth grow.

Slink back O pernicious villain,
To His greater tyranny I am now beholden.