time upon time

Time won't let me forget; time won't let me remember.
Time is short and it is infinite; it bridged eternal divides
carried on endless tides.
Time once held me, shadow-bound in chains,
days passed with the weight of eons,
as time pressed heavy against the hopeful hearts that brought me
Time tempered prayers for freedom;
it is the hard forge that turns faith to steel.

Time saw the day the chains fell away, when
words of prideful owners were owned by the ascendant
--chattel became an archaic and slain word--
Time chimed in the glad moon; as human might
resurrected its holy light. The overcoming power of spirit
made fine metal from pig iron, and distilled
time into the finest vine of life.

The last two

Ahhh if you and I
 were the last two at two;
the sudden sound of the barman's melody...
last call for alcohol.
The poetry of two a.m.,
conversation and sloe gin. Ahhh,
if you and I were the last two at two,
at the edges of night and morn;
no sideways glance would pass the chance
to sidle and say " did you have one of those..?"

Days that make the ways of life seem unfathomed, or
Days that part the waters only to see them fall.
Days that show our best and worst in a single request
when God offers us the chance to be an angel, and we quiver...

Ahhh, but that was all in the first glass and this
is the miracle of two at two, and,
like thought in my mumbled inventions,
the chance of further sobriety is remote
and as far away as dawn.