The Accumulation of Time

The Accumulation of Time

Maybe the clouds are just clouds
(Water vapor, condensed and waiting for a chance to fall)
And maybe the sky is just the sky
And the earth’s turning towards the sun
Which is why it rises behind the trees
Blazing
Don’t you know that you’ve walked here before?
Maybe the gravel under your feet
Or street or sidewalk
(Just rocks, broken and worn smooth by age)
Has been stepped on in the exact same place
By your shoes
Yesterday
Some other day
Long ago
A thousand footsteps
On bare concrete
Or fallen leaves
Or leaving their mark behind in the snow
(isn’t it strange to think that in just a few months, the snow will fall
And cover this path where you walk?)
And a thousand songs sung to the trees
Whispered praise
Or quiet pleading
To their silent branches
Maybe they hear
And hold your words under their bark
Keeping them safe from the world outside
Safe and warm
Because the wind that blows through the world
Grows colder
You can see lights in windows sometimes
And you wonder if the people inside
See you
Just like sometimes when twilight falls
You look out of your window
And see light
(Twilight spreading over your neighborhood
with the setting sun)
Golden
And occasionally people walking by
Their footsteps layering the asphalt
Where so many others have passed

Don’t you know that you’ve walked here before?