Does your past
inhibit the meaning

Does a smile work
to cover your pain

Does today lie in wait
for tomorrow

Your messages cleft,
forever the same

Do you write before feelings
have woken

The letters pretty, in cursive
review

When your words leave the pulpit
unspoken

Do you retreat to the very
last pew

Taking refuge,
as twilight approaches

All windows shuttered,
any truth to mime

Those orphaned moments
to hold you captive

And a victim
—the prisoner of time

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2017)