time ticks

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”