In The Middle 
    of a life that's as complicated as everyone else's,
    struggling for balance, juggling time.
    The mantle clock that was my grandfather's
    has stopped at 9:20; we haven't had time
    to get it repaired. The brass pendulum is still,
    the chimes don't ring. One day I look out the window,
    green summer, the next, the leaves have already fallen,
    and a grey sky lowers the horizon. Our children almost grown,
    our parents gone, it happened so fast. Each day, we must learn
    again how to love, between morning's quick coffee
    and evening's slow return. Steam from a pot of soup rises,
    mixing with the yeasty smell of baking bread. Our bodies
    twine, and the big black dog pushes his great head between;
    his tail, a metronome, 3/4 time. We'll never get there,
    Time is always ahead of us, running down the beach, urging
    us on faster, faster, but sometimes we take off our watches,
    sometimes we lie in the hammock, caught between the mesh
    of rope and the net of stars, suspended, tangled up
    in love, running out of time. 

                          Barbara Crooker