Defenceless Against Time – a sonnet

I am writing a long sequence of sonnets that will see publication in 2023. I thought it might be fun to share some of them in advance.

A sonnet is included below, along with an audio recording of me reading it.

Defenceless Against Time

I never found the time
to comprehend the passage of night,
to decode the leasing of my life’s prime
for the ever-greying white
of certainty. With the duplicity of thieves
time leaves me whimpering, unheard
above the rustle of fallen leaves,
a muted slipping from the stage without a word.
Cheap wisdom protests nothing can make
amends to arrest its going.

If there was a lesson to take
from this, its wisdom might see me growing,
able in future to make more resolute defence
against my leaking time with so little recompense.