In Time
Watches don’t make good gifts for children,
Certainly not the very young,
To whom time seems at first a foreign
Country where children don’t belong.
They learn. We learn. Time overtakes us
The way a language will if we
Must daily speak that language only.
We’re students of necessity.
My friends died, in their early forties,
Two friends from high school and before.
Time dims the light. I didn’t mourn them.
I hardly knew them any more.
But now, in age, I know them better.
I see them now through younger eyes.
Time weakens, and the light grows stronger,
Till in God’s mercy, children rise.
Charles Hughes is the author, most recently, of Ifs, a Few Buts, and Other Stuff, a book of poems for children, published by Kelsay Books, and of two previous poetry collections, The Evening Sky and Cave Art, both from Wiseblood Books. He worked for over 30 years as a lawyer and lives in the Chicago area with his wife.
Amethyst Review 