Time Not Passing

It is not a wild clock vowing vernal explosion
or a dog day gilding the fields with harvest.

It does not melt in summer heat’s contusion
only to wallow in its ancientness.

It’s not flamboyant mushrooms on a rotten tree,
a decomposing meadow of rain-soaked hay,

autumn’s brittle leaves scurrying on a breeze,
or a grieving sky at the end of the day.

It isn’t berries trumpeting the turning season,
not winter winds or the bitterness of frost;

nor is it constant longing for an answer or a reason,
for people and places that we have loved and lost.

Kim M. Russell, 16th April 2023

Image by Saad Chaudry on Unsplash

It’s Sunday, 16th April, the sixteenth day of NaPoWriMo, and the optional daily prompt is a poem of negation, one that involves describing something in terms of what it is not, or not like. My kind of prompt.

Also shared with the dVerse Poets Pub OpenLink 339 May Live edition 20th May 2023.

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21 thoughts on “Time Not Passing”

  7. Gorgeous! It was lovely hearing you read this at OLN today, Kim 😍 I especially admire; “It isn’t berries trumpeting the turning season, not winter winds or the bitterness of frost.” ❤️❤️

    Liked by 1 person

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