Analogies for Time
 
             Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
                                                  —Kurt Vonnegut

Think of time as a river of events: Events the features
of the landscape the river flows through,
The river erodes the landscape. The landscape
is formed, created, given shape 
by the river. Analogies for time. 
Time shapes you but does not abide; and you––– 
you're floating down the river 
in the hot, hot sun 
and gawking 
staring at the drama that unfolds upon the shore. 
(and here
the analogy rings clear) 
Swim upstream. 
Float, idle, absent, 
absorbed. Swim with the current, 
slide along the surface 
of Reality, irritated, muddled,
you're scratching at a scab. Cannot––– 
cannot analogize this river 
backwards so to speak, to get perspective 
on this landscape you're a part of. 
Any map you draw 
or pearl that you accrete 
complete
coterminous. Your poems, 
they blossom forth, they map 
they coincide with 
this earth immaculate 
in conception 
corrupt in execution 
and deconstruct 
create around you reader, 
pull you in. You scratch your head 
and look up at the clock 
that's floating by; 
& the second hand creeps by 
buoyant 
abiding, arriving, enticing 
in the moment 
rejoicing.