Double-taken into reading backwards as befits the literacy-deficient, I first thought, Yes, that's right, it's very easy to pretend that heartbeat's always been here and always will be (like they used to say around the shop at De Beers, Diamonds Are Forever) -- though we know it hasn't, and indeed might be snatched away in an instant; and then realized the old fool had been misreading (again); and that yes, whatever passes before us seems always to have been here... until it's gone, leaving us wondering how we could have missed it.
(Wasn't this the theme of every poem Thomas Hardy ever wrote? -- And look how well it worked for him. Must be some universal truth hidden under that mossy rock.)
Double-taken into reading backwards as befits the literacy-deficient, I first thought, Yes, that's right, it's very easy to pretend that heartbeat's always been here and always will be (like they used to say around the shop at De Beers, Diamonds Are Forever) -- though we know it hasn't, and indeed might be snatched away in an instant; and then realized the old fool had been misreading (again); and that yes, whatever passes before us seems always to have been here... until it's gone, leaving us wondering how we could have missed it.
ReplyDelete(Wasn't this the theme of every poem Thomas Hardy ever wrote? -- And look how well it worked for him. Must be some universal truth hidden under that mossy rock.)
And so the tempus fugits unsteadily along.
Tom—
ReplyDeleteYour last sentence is a real heart-stopper—
All this time I thought time fidgets along!
There is nothing new (though there are many things old) under the sun.
ReplyDeleteExemplum: The Tempus-Fidget!
(It's as he was mumbling,-- yes, there are many things old...)
ReplyDelete