Edgar on Time

Edgar:
The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
Make instruments to plague us:
The dark and vicious place where thee he got
Cost him his eyes.
Edmund:
Th’ hast spoken right, ’tis true.
The wheel is come full circle, I am here.
– King Lear Act V, scene iii

Time’s arrow bends, but doesn’t double back
though corkscrew curves may captivate your eye
and make you think you’ve retraced an old track.

So Edmund’s wrong (as usual). He and I,
entwined like vines in sibling rivalry—
in corkscrew curves that captured both our eyes—

once walked this path, in immaturity,
boys playing bandit, robbing eggs from nests
entwined in vines. Our sibling rivalry,

inconsequential, never laid to rest
grew monstrous as we grew. We are no longer
boys playing bandit, robbing eggs from nests

but men commanding men. As we grew stronger
our hatred flourished, and its consequence
grew monstrous as we grew. We are no longer

children squabbling in our innocence
though all our actions retrace the old track.
Our hatred flourished, and its consequence:
Time’s arrows loosed can never be called back.

--for Cafe Writing and Writer's Island


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