i can't tell you

Do you hear that?
it's the saddest sound in the world.

Not the strident cry
of an infant
abandoned-

Nor the retreating footsteps
of a love
lost-

Nor even the crackle and roar-
of a thousand-
guns peppering bodies with-
holes big-
enough to let their-
spirits seep-
out-

No.

It's the crack of the glass face
and shudder of unforgiving gears
as the human race
attempts

to wrench back the hands
of the resilient master
time.