Invisible

Not everything has to be visible
To be seen
You know this from
Honeycombs inside the hive
Where drones buzz around in circles
Shining in amber amber
armor
You hear only their song
But know there’s something more

The ticking of a clock
isn’t just making noise
It represents some unknown
quantity made manifest
Made into a form we can use
Bite-sized history
Spread out in human terms

For human hands form coliseums
with this tool
Arcades and mausoleums, too
We depend on it
For human hands work with time
and waste it

I admit, I waste as much as I spend
Being sure, getting comfortable
Inside my own skin
Getting set on the starting blocks
for this race
I'll never win

Race against time
And you lose.

(originally published in Outsider Writers, 2007)