A Moment on the Bay of Timeless Wonder

I think of time
As if it were
A thing
Of itself

As if it were
A force ravaging
My body
My memories

As if it were
A measurement
Of change
Of flux

As if it flowed
All around
The objects
I loved

And changed them

And then I watch
A hummingbird
Feeding
On my sister’s porch

I try to see time
In the flapping of its wings
A blur to my eye
A minutiae of
Periodic adjustments
To the hummingbird

I watch the snail’s
Interminable progress
And cannot imagine
Time moving so slowly

And then I realize
That time
Is a useful fiction
For a mind demanding

Progress
Change
Movement
Growth

But presence
Is not a matter of time
Nor is now
This moment

Being and
Non-being
Exist in all time
And in no time

But all time
And no time
Are perceived
Only in non-being

It is being
Which requires
One moment
And the next

It is being
Which remembers
One moment
And the last

It is being
Which loses
Non-being
In time

It is non-being
Which understands
That time is an illusion
In which I manifest being

And in manifesting being
I create a second illusion
Of space
And matter

And separation

In non-being
I exist in non-time
At one
In a singular infinity