TIME IN A BOTTLE

How frequently; how often,

Have each and every one of us

Wished we could soften

The blows that life delivers us

And capture time in a bottle? 

How desperately; how terribly,

Have each and every single one of us

Wished we could forcibly

Remove the ills that trouble us

By capturing time in a bottle? 

The problem with us

Is that we have blinkered vision

And forget that time resides within us

In a kind of a prison

For we ourselves are the bottle. 

The joy within us

Is that we create our own destiny

And the choices are ours

To make with careful scrutiny

For we hold time within our bottle.