greatpoetry | Labuntur et Imputantur, by Ciaran Carson

It was overcast. No hour at all was indicated by the gnomon.

With difficulty I made out the slogan, Time and tide wait for no man.

I had been waiting for you, Daphne, underneath the dripping laurels, near

The sundial glade where first we met. I felt like Hamlet on the parapets of Elsinore,

Alerted to the ectoplasmic moment, when Luna rends her shroud of cloud

And sails into a starry archipelago. Then your revenant appeared and spake aloud:

I am not who you think I am. For what we used to be is gone. The moment’s over,

Whatever years you thought we spent together. You don’t know the story. And moreover,

You mistook the drinking-fountain for a sundial. I put my lips to its whatever,

And with difficulty I made out the slogan, Drink from me and you shall live forever.

I Eat Poetry