Time will Tell

Time will tell.

Time will tell you everything, if you have the time to sit and listen. Sitting there, in that chair, listening to just the tick of the clock on the mantelpiece, he learnt all the secrets of the universe.

He learnt how to move through time and space, to visit the past and the future, how to travel the universe and how to reach the furthest stars. He learnt to understand the true nature of love and how to hold a woman close in the darkest hours of the night. He learnt how to fight for what he believed was right and how to hold a sword and how to aim and shoot a gun.

He walked strange exotic streets and rode in gilded golden-curtained coaches with the princesses unwrapping each other from silk and diaphanous veils just for him.

He learnt how to touch and be touched.

He learnt how to feel the tremulous heartbeat of small living things as he held them in his hand waiting for them to take to the air of freedom. He learnt about you, and I, and learnt all our secret names.

Most of all, though, he learnt how to sit still and let time pass without worrying about all the time passing him by.