When Time Itself is Late

I'm late!
I'm late!
For a very important date!

Time ticks and clicks and picks
Flowers - hours in showers of
Rain, gain, all the same.

Life likes to tease,
Whisper secrets in the trees,
What you're supposed to know with ease.

Catch you in a storm,
Push out of norm -
Giving new form.

It turns you into clay,
Toss, flip, play,
Breaking night, mending day.

You want to go,
Just let the world know
You're gonna break the flow, but
No -

Not 'till it's done
Having it's fun,
Making you the one

You need to be.

Time for change.
It's not so strange -
It'll rearrange

Until flowers are bouquets,
Secrets become clichés,
Storms transforming to red-letter days.

It's only then you realize
How much in life there is to prize
When you wake to see bright suns arise.

We only know hope when we've seen despair,
Knowing common, we recognize rare.
Only when put out does fire know it's flare.

Tabula rasa - never again a brand-new slate,
We can't live with regrets, we have to get it straight -
Only when we're early do we realize it's too late.