Where does time go?
In the crease of packages
waiting at customs,
the long breath
in small talk, lineups
at popular restaurants – time,
seemingly disappearing
into the day.
But everything that holds
time – a toddler’s first wobbly steps,
deepening wrinkles on the face,
a closure long waited,
lets us know
time is not vanishing; it is a careful
bookkeeper, and it is us
who are ticking
toward our disappearance.
-Mehrnaz Bassiri, 2024
