Do You Ever Wonder

Do you ever wonder
why breaths proceed,
the next hard on
the heels of the last

and why so much of time
seems to live
in the future, or
the past?  The now,
the inhalation of everything
around you is no more than

a placeholder, a scribble in
the margin of how the sun
set last Tuesday, scarlet streak
descending toward water,
conversation caving into silence

and how next month will
find you traveling to Grenada,
memories already packed
like your suitcase.  All you have
to do is unpack, unpack,

before and after, unpack
because the week will be
nothing more than a
placeholder, already showing
the stress of time’s weight,
that twist from will to has,
an interesting colour
appearing in granite.