SPOKE

SPOKE

For Ahmad Razvi

"A century is only a spoke in the wheel of everlasting time."

- Louis Riel 

“And this the world calls frenzy; but the wise

Have a far deeper madness, and the glance

Of melancholy is a fearful gift;

What is it but the telescope of truth?

Which strips the distance of its fantasies,

And brings life near in utter nakedness,

Making the cold reality too real!”

- George (Lord) Byron, a few lines of “The Dream”.

***

SPOKE

We dance on this old surface

For many years we feel

We do not rest, we race

We are incredibly real

We think, but we are nothing

We exist a non-existent time

A dust spec in the desert

A syllable of rhyme

A spoke in all the wheels

That make our world the place

That turns and runs and reels

And all we do is race

To make the best out of it

That short time we are here

Less than a century we’re on it

Don’t spend that time in fear.

This earth, will it remember

We visited it for a while?

I hope it will, with fondness

Not with anger, but with a smile.

© Darren White