Time ticks
But
Clocks don’t stop..
One headphone offers the spoken word of Gill Scott Heron
And I too wonder ‘where did the night go’
Carefully avoiding yesterdays reminence on the pavement
Misplaced investments and modern day enslavements
That’s when I saw him
He was older than times gone past
But seemed younger at a second glance
Time had took its toll on him
But he seemed to take it
Simply
But
He seemed to have some kinda of iner-glow that eluded, being extinguished
It seemed to BE the core of him
I didn’t say a word, but somehow
He saw within
He recounted times past long before
I had to smile as we toured
Significant moments large and to some seemingly small
But to me not at all
From that small blond haired boy, with not a care in the world
To a family upbringing, not bad at all
Then suddenly he stopped
And looked up
In the back of his eyes formed tears
That had stayed there for years longing to be cried
But never found there time
He saw the kid with the faded baseball cap
Zoot in hand spittin drum and bass chat
Telling stories of how he’s all that
But really
He was just lost
He been pointed in the right direction on the right path
But in distraction he’d got lost
And the saddest part of history recounted
Was that he didn’t even know it
This man then looked up at me
With a look of vague intensity
Not so much offering a word to me
Then conversed with something deep within me
He knew where i’d been
And as if a concept seldom seen
Somehow, he’d been there too
His overcoat told a story
Of too many night
Under stars and street lights
His shoes had seem a 100 miles
Ontop of that 1000 miles
And 1000 more still to come
He had more miles to walk, more needs done
His eyes
They spoke with intensity
Of depth and clarity of real life
He took me back to place’s and times
That i didn’t even remember or couldn’t find
In my
Mixed up confused battered over time mind
He said “you don’t remember these coz these ones you tried to hide”
These pictures hurt
They spoke of negativity and no sense of self worth
They unleashed the beast of fear of failing
Uncovered the whole of rejection I often fell in
The dark began to sink in
As I sunk into these memories and feelings
I couldn’t stand, so on this guy I’m leaning
It’s like these times were standing screaming
But with one hand firmly planted on my shoulder
His drawn face seemingly older
Penetrated the stone cold
And told
Another side to the story
He guided me through it slowly, in vivid detailed imagery
Though all were distant memories
He showed me, so I could see
This guy
Standing right beside of me!
His over coat this time was slightly more tidy
The shoes he rocked, far less grimy
But the eyes that now see inside of me
Still pierced with the same level of intensity
As they did that very day
As i drifted
He followed
as i shifted
he pulled
but i ignored
he waved
but i never saw
but he never left
Na......never
Now here we sit in a darkened ally on a shop step
Heads a mess
Full of sorrow and regret
He say
“hold on, let’s not go there yet”
Then he hands an envelope over
I open it eagerly
With hope to think of what it might just be
Then that excitement drifts away from me
When I screwed up blank piece of paper is all that lays in front of me
“This is the way of the path less travelled”
He utters eagerly as if to breathe some life into me
“I don’t get it, are you joking me?”
Then in the truest ever sense of the saying in exact Jack Bower style and fashion, he say’s “you just gotta trust me”
At once I’m struck with the immense se-realness of the situation
That’s been unfolding and how ridicules it all seems
And that just seems to make him smile
I look at the paper again
The first steps appear
As I walk forward
More seem to be reviled
Turnings appear
I took a right
Then the map seemed to slowly recount my steps
To the place I just left
But the lessons I learned help me make the decision
And i feel far less stressed and at this point I take a left
Now it took a few years
To get from there to hear
The roads been narrow
But, that’s how it was always gonna be
Sometimes it gets on top of me
But when it does and it seems to much for me
I take a glance to the other side to see
To that same guy
Who’s always there with me
The green overcoat seems somewhat older
And the shoes have walked plenty more roads
But those eyes
They still look straight at me
And the voice
It still speaks to me
“you just gotta trust me”
