Ticked Off
By Susan Mardele
I watch as my microwave timer
counts down to zero.
The seconds disappear one by one…
tick, tick, tick.
I am struck by a strange panic.
Each second is gone forever.
Each moment that counts down
is one less I get to live.
It’s easy to be in denial
about time passing,
It’s just the children.
All of a sudden, they’re grown.
It doesn’t seem
like that much time has passed,
But growing children
are denial crushers.
Childhood passes,
beloved people pass,
Youth dwindles,
little by little leading to maturity.
That horrible thing
I thought would go on forever?
Tick, tick, tick,
it’s in the rearview mirror.
That wonderful time?
Tick, tick, tick, now a rosy memory.
No matter how I try to grab
a second, a minute, an hour,
Tick, tick, tick…
The relentless accounting of time
rips it away.
I pull my now-hot milk out of the microwave.
Shut the door.
Without the green numbers
ticking off before my eyes,
The passing of time
isn’t quite so obvious,
And it’s easy to slip
comfortably back into complacency.
Yet, I’m left unsettled…
feeling that I must treasure this moment
…and this…and this.
Holding each one as a beautiful jewel,
something of great price I can never get back.
Yet, the green backlit numbers
keep going down and down and down
Until none are left, and…
Beeeeeep.