The Allegory of Time

by Mark Terrill

The broken mirror above the cracked sink

in the cheap hotel room in the ancient harbor

on the other side of the island

seems to be saying all there is to be said

about the passing of time

and all that passes with it

except that the language of things

is always spoken in ideas

which — unlike reality — are finite in nature

and destined to implode and disappear

when the thinker stops thinking

like a dying star in a collapsing galaxy

at the other end of the universe

the light of which could never possibly

reach us in time.