Time presses on everyone in different ways:
some people try to quicken it, some try to slow it down,
some people just spend it up like poker players
burning time in increments of chips.
If the cards are good, they get a pile of time back,
but most times they do not.
Time is powered by their tall tales
which often begin and end the same way:
A long time ago…I was a princess who wrote fables
and not very good ones.
Before the world was the way it is today…
I told you everything with ink and horses delivered my words to you.
Far, far away…I lived a life where many things happened
and I do not remember any of those things.
I want to tell you a story…about a boy and a girl
who grew up over many lifetimes.
In olden times, in the beginning, just yesterday…
I was more intrepid and so I probably died very young.
Long ago, many years ago, in the long, long ago…
I was wonderfully foolish.
Once there was…a way to say this.
Once upon a time…I could tell you this.
Perhaps you know the story already.
There once lived a man…like you who knew all the places I ever lived.
There once was…a very happy ending
and once a very tragic ending
and plenty of miscellaneous endings.
There was a time…when you were at my door
with flowers and a dog, with flowers and a song,
with flowers and a thingamajig.
You may be wondering why…things have changed.
I may be wondering too.
Time presses on all the stories differently,
every single time.
The end.