The time man 

 

Thin as a whip in a felted suit, the Time Man creeps around. Silent as night he stands behind me, the ticking his only sound. 

 

His hands a blade, his head a clock, 

I was born with dues 

 

Trapped in my cell with a bloated lock, 

My thoughts begin to bruise. 

 

He appears when you’re young, 

The welcome of life, the death of a pet, 

But soon as fear gets your tongue 

You’ll find his flitting silhouette. 

 

Now ask who is this figure, this thing who haunts me so? Must I bribe or fight to make the dripping time slow? 

 

Well to us he is indifferent, he destroys with his right hand And in his left, he creates our life, we flourish in his land. 

 

From my chest, there is a cord to fit between his fingers, As clock strikes twelve he’ll cut my cord and no second will he linger. 

 

Try as I might to take it off, this lifeline I cannot sever For death comes with my cut and the Time Man takes me forever. 

 

Time Man wardens thought prison, as justly and as cruel, Life sentences are his game, his gavel is his tool. 

 

Encompassed in stench and cold through the bone, 

The Time Man locks my cell door just to keep me alone. 

 

When doing his rounds, clicking echoes down the hall He hears the thoughts swimming in my brain and then he takes them all 

​

To eat he feeds me promises, 

Of things he will not keep, 

This world is my sarcophagus 

A nightmare of endless sleep.

​

To drink there is a blackest pool to drown my lungs with lead And while I sip, 

He begins to rip 

My mindless moments fled. 

 

I cannot help but think in this prison where I reside, These walls exist to calm me down and show that I arrived. 

 

In my cage, the shadows grow and melt into my mind. There is no use to fret nor writhe, from time you cannot hide 

 

Perhaps my thought prison is the illusion where l stay The minutes flee until the end; my life is my debt paid. 

 

I wash my days right down the drain and fear my aging face Because even rocks turn into dust and disappear without a trace. 

 

I’ll think of him in darkest night, 

He’ll shut my door 

But not before, 

He first shuts out my light.