Relentless Time – A Poem by Kailash Nath Khandelwal

O Time, relentless and unforgiving,
You sweep through the ages, leaving nothing untouched.
Your passage is marked by the rise and fall of civilizations,
The birth and death of stars, the endless cycle of creation and destruction.

Your pace is both swift and slow,
A blur of motion one moment, a crawl the next.
You are the keeper of memories, the eraser of history,
A paradox of preservation and loss.

In your wake, empires crumble to dust,
And monuments to human ingenuity are reduced to rubble.
Yet, you also bring new life and possibility,
A chance for growth, for renewal, for transformation.

You are the thief of youth and beauty,
Stealing away the vibrancy of life, leaving behind wrinkles and grey hair.
But you are also the giver of wisdom and experience,
A slow-burning fire that refines and purifies.

Your mysteries are profound, your secrets unyielding,
A labyrinth of past, present, and future, forever intertwined.
And yet, we try to grasp you, to understand your rhythms,
To make sense of the chaos, to find meaning in the passage of time.

O Time, you are a force beyond our control,
A reminder of our mortality, a measure of our existence.
You shape us, mold us, and ultimately, you take us,
Leaving behind only memories, and the echoes of what once was.