Time

By Carol Lynn Pearson

Time is a stage magician

Pulling sleight-of-hand tricks

To make you think things go.

There—

Eclipsed by the quick scarf—

A lifetime of loves.

Zip—

The child is man.

Zip—

The friend in your arms

Is earth.

Zip—

The green tree is gold, is white,

Is smoking ash, is gone.

Zip—

Time’s trick goes on.

All things loved—

Now you see them, now you don’t.

Oh, this world has more

Of coming and of going

Than I can bear.

I guess it’s eternity I want, where

All things are and always will be,

Where I can hold my loves

A little looser,

Where finally we realize:

Time

Is the only thing that really dies.

• Carol Lynn Pearson is, in the words of some book sellers, “the hottest Mormon poet on the market.”

  Her poems have the unusual distinction of being read and loved in both common and literary circles.