It’s not that time passes us by

The moments turned days,

Turned months, then years,

Stay in our minds

Memories in the present

When you close your eyes

Or smell the scent

That was yours and mine,

Memories in the present

When you’re alone at night

It’s not that time passes us by

That yesterday was once upon a time

When morning brings sunshine

And spring buds lilacs,

The purple of last year

Blooming here in the present

If yesteryear was before,

And evening comes again

What makes the difference

Between now and then

What makes the difference

Between what was and what isn’t

An illusion inescapable

And yet always with us

The great mystery

Of moments turned history

…But is it?

The song that sings childhood,

Beckoning youth as nostalgia does

The golden blue of twilight

In Austin, once Arizona

Only calendars keep the score

And clocks that sound tick tocks

Tricking us to believe

That time is locked

…But is isn’t

Tempting us to think time is lost

That memories and dreams

And what once was

Live elsewhere, not here,

Still existing

It’s not that time passes us by

It’s just that we learned differently

Pretending the past, a memory

But in the moment of now

I see how it oft plays out

The moments turned months,

Turned years, then life

Always here, always with us

Somehow

Always here, always with us

Even now

- Me [3/22/2022]