Respect Time

Why can we not see
this life as a recurring theme?

Always racing to catch
the ancient force

Unseen but always there

Treadmill souls 
on a long trek to nowhere
oblivious to the glorious periphery
spread out all around
but not viewed as vital enough
to merit precious attentions

As we ratchet up the speed
  
So intent on selfish conquests

The folly of false triumphs
that while they may
inflate our egocentric bottom line
ring hollow eventually 

As the tick tock symphony
which started out ever so faintly
reverberating in our ears
as our constant companion
tis mere background noise
during the early go go years

A secondary percussion player   
providing a soothing beat

Then much to our surprise
we find ourselves gone
beyond the point half way
as Time,
now a deafening
growling storm 
becomes the hunter
and we the wounded prey

The tale always ends the same 
with minor variations to the story

TIME CONQUERS ALL

TIME ALWAYS WINS

So do as the old poetic cliche says:

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may