THE SANDS OF TIME

Editor's note: Today is Father's Day, and later this week -- June 24 -- will mark the second year since Dad passed away.

The sands, we know,
Relentless, flow,
And, as the seasons pass,
Each golden grain
Will surely drain
Into the lower glass.

We cannot slack,
Nor hold it back,
Nor is it in our power
To take away
A single day,
Or add a single hour.

We'll never see
It come to be
That Time will turn in flight
Thereby to give
Us to relive
A numbered day or night.

We can't command
The trickling sand,
But its passing we may ease,
If, in its place
We've filled the space
With golden memories!

--Acres of Verse (1994)