A beating heart

Time is strange when it fastens onto me
it doesn’t taste or smell, feel pain or suffering
grow or die, love or hate
and somehow, to me, that isn’t exactly honest.
Not how it flows strangely by
like currents through the sea!
Not how it faces me in the mirror
with less youth, more wisdom!
Not how it courses through me
with less heart, more confusion!
Not how it opens the door to fear
to death and the passing years!
Not how this time confounds me?
Leaves me chasing it, a tail I cannot catch
Leaves me missing it, a bone I cannot fetch
Leaves me loving it, a glow that does not dim
Leaves me hating it, an ocean I cannot swim
Leaves me cursing it!
But without it, no forward or backward
no living or dying
no loving or hating
no giving or taking
no nothing at all that isn’t the same
and the same
and the same
and the same
not me!
not anything!
what a horrible game that would be
if from time we were to depart
all life and its beating heart?
We’d all be apt to forget the measure of life
how precious these moments...are