Where Does the Time Go


 Where does the time go?
 Where does it run to?
 How can so many days
 And hours and seconds
 And years speed by
 When suddenly old happens.
  
 What is old anyway?
 It’s more than wrinkles 
 And grey hair.
 It’s more than arthritis 
 And hip replacements.
  
 It’s remembering black and white 
 Television
 And cars the size of tanks.
 It’s faded photos
 That weren’t taken on a phone.
  
 It’s laughing at the computer voice
 On Star Trek 
 Because we now have our own
 Alexa and Siri who tell us the weather
 And how to spell pneumonia.
  
 Old crept up or rather
 Raced up 
 And settled in my hip.
 And my eyes and ears.

 It crept up on other people too.
 Rock stars now look like grandpas.
 Actresses look like their skin shrank
 And their lips popped.
 Once boyish politicians have jowls 
 And bald spots.
  
 And the youth of the world
 The perennially fresh-faced crowd
 With new ideas which are really
 Old ideas in a slicker package.
 Do they know how fast it
 All goes?
  
  
 I was told. 
 I was warned.
 But I paid no attention.
 Why worry about some 
 Future when right now
 Is so easy.
 So breezy. 
  
 Life is so lush and full
 And stretches ahead. 
 Plenty of time
 To be successful.
 Fall in love.
 Write the novel.
 Change the world
  
 Until the time goes.
 Until it disappears 
 A breathless moment
 That grows, blooms
 And fades.
  
 Where does the time go?
 The moments shimmer away
 Leaving but memories,
 Phantom images and
 Dreamlike thoughts
 Of long ago.