‘Pressed for Time’: A Poem by C.B. Anderson

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Pressed for Time

Though life is good, it doesn’t last that long,
And so we’re always left desiring more.
Remember, though, you bought it for a song—
Did you expect a grand eternal tour?

We find we’re subject to a grave condition
That challenges our hearts and tests our faith,
Where all our vaunted powers of cognition
Add up to useless shavings from a lathe.

Our loved ones die, and surely so do we,
Despite how much we’d like to linger longer;
If only we could pay a simple fee
To grow, not weaker, but forever stronger.

Now, as it happens, no one understands
The nature of those lethal cosmic powers
That regulate the turning of the hands
Of clocks, which tick away our mortal hours.

Though not for us to second-guess the Lord
By dreaming up a friendlier design,
Senescence is a plight we can’t afford
Nor with His promised Providence align,
And dying is a fate we find untoward,
As might the poor canary in a mine.

first published in The Lyric (2024)

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C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden.  Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India.  His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press.