Timeless

The mortal god,

Timeless, yet scared so deep

That night and twilight ever haunt

The stricken demon's sleep.

Is he a god?

Looking down with a benevolent eye;

Or no more than devil spawn,

Destroying creation with every trick?

He lands as he pleases,

And asserts reign,

Yet when they come back for his help,

He looks at them with shame.

The people he tries to help

May only see him once;

But when their cities crumble and fall,

He's nowhere to watch the dust.

All that's left is the leaf,

Rising through steel and time,

Immortal,

Time.

The leaf grows,

And slowly nature overtakes civilization.

As it is.

Under every sun.

Constellations,

Bright in their thrones,

Each a new star,

For others, they atone.

But certainly,

Each will be a crime.

Civilization is vast.

Ideas wear not with time.

Some things are constant.

Life will grow,

Life will evolve to technology,

All this he knows.

The mortal god,

In his constellations,

Watching over what he cannot change,

The life of every sun.

He sits,

Waits,

Learns,

Watches unfolding fates.

Each fate is the same.

Each star brings its life,

Each spawns civilization,

Each to its strife.

Cities grow,

Empires fall,

Technology evolves faster than life--

He watches all.

Empires rise,

And expand,

And when their planet is at capacity,

They spread to the stars with a fresh hand.

They build cities,

But never know

That the soil which bears them prosperity

Is the ash and dust of cities, to time flown.

They watch their buildings rise,

As technology opens the sky;

Engines roar, chemistry evolves,

The heavens are within their eye.

Metallurgy,

Science,

Robotics,

Eminence.

They see the clouds part,

And are off for the universe, new lands,

For ships get faster,

And their boundary expands.

They become limited,

Their brilliance outpaces their mortal bounds.

Science.

Technology abounds.

They teach computers,

Mathematics,

Engineering,

Oh how they made problems fixed.

Yet,

With all this intelligence,

One constant remains.

Arrogance.

The uncured seed of dissent,

Wealth,

Personal gain,

Self.

With the technology of the stars,

Life still cannot transcend mortality.

Opinions differ,

And thus is civilization's fatality.

Everything is limited.

Civilizations fall, in time.

For time is the greatest enemy.

The one truly immortal mind.

Some argue time a thing.

But he knows more.

Time is a majesty all her own,

For time brings war.

Ambition breeds Napoleons,

Neros,

Caesar,

But never a hero.

All beings share the same fate.

All become no more than meat.

As stars devour planets,

They find their eternal seat.

Elements.

The only constant.

Life leaves machines,

But time erodes giants.

What was once great becomes dust.

Buried.

As planets are destroyed,

Eternally buried.

He knows.

He knows.

Where simple elements go,

Life will follow.

Years.

Centuries.

Eons.

Time knows no boundaries.

Time will bring life,

But will crush it all the same.

Inevitable,

No more than a game.

He watches it fall,

For there's nothing to be done.

No survival,

No escape. Not one.

So as the civilizations crumble,

He strives to forget,

But in the end,

Time shall never let.

One atom,

Alone,

Brings others,

Building a home.

As atoms collect,

More and more bind together,

Planets,

Forever.

Planets,

In their flat orbits,

Suns,

Permit.

Eventually,

Suns grow,

They devour planets,

And civilizations whole.

Yet,

Somehow,

Life persists.

Even now.

The building blocks of everything,

As black holes devour and destroy,

Are still being spawned,

At the very edges of time's cruel toy.

As is destroyed,

Is it brought,

Into nothing,

From naught.

All is merely one more move,

This game of time.

It plays on,

Forever.

Checkmate.