We Tried Beating Time to Death

it is i / who throws the first punch / into the face
of the effigy we built / in the shape of an hourglass

the others / stand in line / waiting to see / where i
am going with this / i punch & punch / until my

knuckles become leaking cans / of strawberry jam
they can tell / i am trying to exhume / all the nights

i could have slept / in my mother’s lap / the harder
i hit / the faster i feel / my anger / gushing like water

through a broken hose pipe / each landing / of fist
an attempt to avenge / the / quote unquote

untimely passing / of the people / whose tanned faces
i can touch / only in photographs / on my shoulders

i feel the grip / of invisible hands / trying to stop me
from sending time / back to its maker / Lord / i have

held my peace / for far too long / to be denied offering
a hand in ending / the faceless collector / of my trinkets

of joy / heated up in my sleeveless shirt / sweat-soaked
i kiss my knuckled fist / the others / join the party

with their batons & golf clubs / we beat the hell out
of time / until it is all pulp / if we could / we would

drag it back to when we were just children / chasing
fountains of joy / when our lives knew nothing about

the sacrilege of ache / or what it meant to kneel before
God / asking to be liberated from despair / asking God

to teach us how / to backtrack to a time / when time
did not exist / for we know / taking out our grievances

is not enough / something in the wind / is whispering
there has to be a way / for it to return / all it has stolen

(Editors’ Note: “We Tried Beating Time to Death” is read by Matt Peters on the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, Episode 61B.)

A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy