Changed Pages- “When the Clock Forgot”

Every time my life changes,

without warning, without pause.

I turn to the worn pages of my book

and try to make sense of it —

a line here, a thought there,

something that might rhyme with grief.

Change stirs my chest,

not like music —

more like static,

a skipped heartbeat.

So I lean away,

afraid of falling,

of failing —

and slip into that old darkness,

the one no one else sees.

But even there,

just as I’m sure I’m gone,

someone always finds me.

A hand.

A voice.

A reason to step forward.

And I begin to understand:

the time I thought I lost to change

was brief.

The real time —

the true time —

was the love

that came because of it.