The Thinness of Time

The Thinness of Time 

There is tenderness now 
in how I hold time. 

There is time yet - 
though it wears thinner than it used to, 
threadbare, 
the weave giving way to light, 
like the roof of a sukkah 
in late September. 

So much has been spent. 
Memory is thick with chapters already written, 
choices already chosen. 
A mountain of days gathers behind me. 

It’s a long way back to the beginning 
when time spilled over the edges. 
Abundant. 
Lavish. 

Days are held together now 
by habit and history, 
by memory and old music. 

The heart’s pull, 
the wanting, 
grows softer. 
What has been placed 
in my keeping 
is enough. 

© Rivkah Lambert Adler 2026