I could pretend that it's almost midnight,
but wait a minute, it is almost midnight,
so, I might not need to pretend at all.

The seconds multiply and become minutes and hours and in my mind's eye I see days and weeks and years lining up in tiers, it's still dark, the Muezzin calls from the Mosque in the park, melodic, haunting, I put on a shirt and bring the washing in off the line,

time is still and still time.

the second hand is
'the third man'
the joker in the pack
and we are always looking back
pretending it's almost midnight.