Time Song

Alter one link, we vanish--

turn nothing, never were--

these solid-seeming bodies

changed to air;


or follow the dark web backwards

through mazes finely spun,

and over the first ocean see

the first sun;


or stretch a hand into the future

that down through a thousand years

will shape the lives of those unborn,

affect the stars.


And yet, like some picture woven

upon an endless wall,

it hangs--perfected--finished--

never to change at all.


Copyright 2010-2012 Paul Petrie