It started with some second lost
(a minute here or there at most)
until one day in March or May,
the timekeeper lost track of when.

Then every clock ticked differently:

too slowly
backwards
fast or stuck

but

for those moments
most felt free
of future
speed
antiquity

and talk arrived
of timelessness

permanence

more mindfulness

until much stricter systems came
to make the hours turn the same

corrective measures

taming rates.

Now time detains
our dates and fates.