Mr

by Noel McNaughton
(Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)

Like kids hanging around a swimming hole
On an endless summer afternoon,
A group of souls
Stood at the edge of eternity
And dared each other
To leap into the river of time.

One by one we took the plunge,
You and I,
Like Cosmic Otters
Sliding into a pool of starlight.

And here we are,
Doing the crawl or the backstroke,
Drifting, or struggling.
Some floundering,
Others stroking earnestly upstream.

Sometimes we dive deep,
Then streak to the surface
And leap clear out,
Like celestial dolphins frolicking in the bow wave
Of the Master's ship.
Then we say for a moment time stood still.

We say time flies,
We say soon we'll be out of time.
And we will be,
When we slip out of this river
To sun ourselves once more
On the grassy banks of eternity.