Time Waits for No Man

‘The time’s become fleeting and flying,

And rushing me off to the grave,’

Or so would say Roderick Styling,

‘It’s sweeping me on like a wave.’

I found his remarks so depressing

I’d walk on the side of the street

Where I knew he wouldn’t be walking,

On hearing the sound of his feet.

He’d corner me back in the office,

Unburden his pure misery,

Or catch me in field or in coppice,

To tell me his bleak history.

For often I’d find he was waiting

Wherever he shouldn’t have been,

I found that I couldn’t avoid him,

His whispers and chatter obscene.

‘We’ve only one life, so enjoy it,’

I’d counter, when he would begin,

But then he would start to destroy it,

By saying that life became grim.

‘The older you get, so the faster,

It races along like a train,

Is headed for certain disaster,

The end of the journey is pain.’

Then he seemed to age by the minute,

His skin became wrinkled and worn,

Despair, he would seem to dive in it,

And had since the day he was born.

‘You’ll not do yourself any favours,’

I’d say, ‘when it hangs on each breath,

For life will not gift what it savours,

If you’re so determined on death.’

But one day I looked in the mirror,

And saw what I never had seen,

The markings of age, like a river,

Were flowing, where once youth had been.

I tried to ignore it by sighing

That ageing was lending me grace,

But I could see Roderick Styling

Was staring right back in my face.

And that’s when I knew life was fleeting

I had to seize what there was left,

I sent him a note for a meeting

While I was still feeling bereft.

He lies in a grave in a coppice

A jagged hole under his jaw,

While I work alone, in the office,

He’d got what he’d been looking for.

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[T.S. Sky]

Time truly waits for no man. Love this.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Well-told story DLP. Enjoyed it.

[Avinash]

Some people are so sadistic that they start contemplating their demise the moment they start to think. I have often seen people meeting their death the way they feared most. So it is always good to consider death as a friend rather than an enemy and embrace it happily when it comes. Rest of the days you can ask it to hold on while you take care of the important tasks which matter to you.

[minisla]

Been a while David still as witty as ever

[Coyote Poetry]

You are right my friend. A amazing tale written in the words. Life goes very quickly. Need to use our time wisely. Thank you David for sharing the amazing poetry.
Coyote

[Tony Jordan]

Everybody knows at least one Roddy Styling lol.
For me - impending old age smacked me upside the head one day when I overheard two teens in an I.T. class I was attending asked where "the 'old boy' with the blonde hair had gone" after I'd gone into the next room. It was like a ton of bricks had hit me !! lol.

BayJaysus DLP - this verse is pure gold mate
"‘You’ll not do yourself any favours,’
I’d say, ‘when it hangs on each breath,
For life will not gift what it savours,
If you’re so determined on death.’"

keep 'er lit !!

[Einstein Noodle]

well...i can relate my friend ... i recently had a good look in me own mirror and it was like a switch flipped and one moment i had x amts of energy and drive and suddenly only y amts ... sigh .. all that seems left is the graceful bit ;) i could not find who your roderick is .... a lot of them in fashion .. but could not find his quote you speak of :( ... story, rhyme, rhythm all good in the Paget voice :)
E.