"The Time," A Poetry Post for My Son

My son,
I am already an
outdated model.

I have already lived an
estimated third of my life
if I live to be 100...

and half of my life
if I live to be 60...

All of my purpose...
all of its fulfillment...
is wrapped up in
time.

Whatever I could do
between 12 and 22
is gone.

Whatever I could do
between 13 and 30
is gone.

The potentials
of those seasons
have been lived or
squandered,
developed like polaroids
or
poured out over the
graves of
great dreams left
unlived.

The urgency of
right now is
a forward pulling
aroma
when you
understand
the time.

You are young, and so,
you do not
understand
aging.

Your brain is
a decade or so
behind the realization
that every minute is a
gift to give
to your world...
given to you
by a great God to
do something
great with.

The true passage
of those minutes to you
right now
feels like a heavy weight of
responsibility.

But in time,
you will see that a minute
is a universe
divinely sat down
before you
like a
Thanksgiving table.

Everything you need
to learn grace,
to learn patience,
to learn relationship,
to learn peace,
to learn productivity
is housed in the seconds...
the minutes...
the hours...

It is all wrapped up
in the time.

I am an outdated model.
I see the time differently
because I have already missed certain
peak seasons.

You child are young.
You don't see the time at all.

Let me lend you my eyes
while they are still awake.

Do not close your windows.

The aroma of future
is near you.

-T. D. James-Moss