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Broken Hourglass
Brazil    I'm a 21yo brazilian artist. I study Cinema and also love writing poetry. I created this platform to help divulge my work.

Poems

camille Dec 2015
our love was an hourglass.
time was always ticking and always is
but with you time seemed to slow down
you made me forget about our "time limit"
and you made me believe the sand would fall for eternity
however the hourglass was still there counting down until you had to move,  
until my heart had to shatter into a million pieces.
I knew that day was coming eventually,
I was just in denial
because no one taught me that there's no such thing as a "happy ending"

our time became shorter and I began to worry.
I knew our time together was coming to a close
when the sand in the hourglass faded, so did you.
and on that day when the sand stopped I knew I hadn't cherished you enough
for it was your leaving day,
the day you packed your bags, hopped in the moving van and never looked back.
and even though the hourglass stopped running, it never ran out.
because you can never get rid of the sand in an hourglass.

and even though you left, I could never truly get rid of you. you were the sand, trapped, without an escape, forced to keep tumbling through my mind.

now the "sand" in the hourglass represents my heart, shattered and torn.  
the pieces shift as memories of us collide.
and I have no control of when the hourglass gets flipped over again.
nor can I control when flashbacks of us come flooding in like a hurricane.  
I just do my best to build a dam, and hold everything back.  

eventually, our hourglass came to a stop.
and I ran out of energy to keep up with you.  
you were the effortless sand, falling wherever gravity took you.
but once you left I became lonely
I was the empty side of the hourglass
I could still see you, and I still loved you
but there was nothing I could do about it.
you just let the pieces fall where they may,
while I tried to put my own pieces back together
but I looked like an idiot because something was missing from all those pieces.
and that something was you.
Joel Mathew Sep 2019
Before I realised anything, an hourglass stood before me
It stood before me, majestic and strong, sand sizzling down its top
Golden sand so beautiful, like crystals of light stolen from the sun
Encased in glass so clear, like diamond, void of everything but itself

What was it trying to tell me? I didn't know.
My gaze was lost in it, awestricken by curiosity
I crawled around the glass floor inspecting the peculiar object
For it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

As grains of sand hit the bottom, I grew closer to the top
Intimacy led to trust, trust led to kinship, kinship led to family
As grains of sand hit the bottom, I found myself wanting to protect each grain
I found myself wanting to cherish for eternity, each fleeting grain.

As grains of sand hit the bottom, I grew closer to the top. But not close enough.
Close enough to see what secrets the top held
Close enough to understand what this hourglass meant
As grains of sand hit the bottom, I found myself wishing they'd fall faster.

Eventually I stopped growing and the sand slowed down.
My gaze was lost in it, numbed by boredom
What waited at the dreary end? What was the point of any of this?
Filled with questions and no answers, I started clawing at the glass.

It felt wrong. It felt like I was betraying something important.
I had reached a miserable point where I couldn't care less.
Right and wrong were like glass and sand. I kept clawing until the horrendous screeching ceased with a cold cold crack.
The squalid sand poured out onto the glass floor.

The sand scrunched against my feet, it felt... different.
I knew I should fix the ominous crack, but I didn't
My sinful hands felt heavy, it was almost like I didn’t care anymore.
Bitter tears streamed down my face and were soaked into the acrid sand.

Tears for the hourglass it could've been
Tears for the man who felt nothing when he broke it
Tears for the man who'd given up on fixing it.
Tears for the child who was lost in the blissful dunes of oblivion

The sand stopped pouring out, where the crack once was now the glass lay welded
Beside my pathetic hourglass stood hers, the most beautiful hourglass I'd ever seen
Golden sand so beautiful, like crystals of light stolen from the sun
Encased in glass so clear, like diamond, void of everything but itself.

Beauty in simply existing, ambition in each sizzling grain
Audacity to dream dreams for a tomorrow
I knew none of those so I copied her hoping
Someday I'd be able to stand beside her as her equal

In her I saw myself, a fascinated child beside his hourglass
Her existence rekindled a flame within, sparked by determination
Lost in my hourglass I realised the unfathomable potential in each grain
Conceiving the myriad of grains coursing through the glass... a latent being awakened

With that the gears of the cosmos were clanked into motion
And for the first time, I heard winds howl in this windless plane
Winds of fate, winds of time, winds from the birth of continuum
Propelling me towards the point where the sun melts sand to glass

Propelling me towards the singularity where a God is born.

And thus the saga began and the timeless grains of sand fell
As the final grain fell my entire life flashed before my eyes, and by far
the  most important grains were: the first that birthed my existence, and the other, when I found out why
As the final grain fell, I closed my weary eyes, smiling, seeing the most beautiful hourglass I'd ever seen.
I tried to express what my life was like the past year and my journey in discovering my purpose. I still haven't but when I do I think it'll be something like this.