Time intrudes

Time intrudes;
cog engaging cog
in its tick-tock repetition
sounding the moments,
stealing the instants,
consigning them
to the acquisition of dust.

Time intrudes;
taking captive
the present,
making hostage,
staking claim.
‘Now’ becomes ‘then’
ensnared by Stockholm syndrome;
the advancing tock
taking stock,
applying lock,
and throwing away the key.

Never ‘now and then’;
not even now
but always then,
as sweet tasting present
is wrapped and bonded
in the warehouse of memory. 

Now is forgotten,
then is remembered.