Time Is a Boulder

Written by Wade R. DeYoung

After Ocean Vuong

Time is a yellow bulldozer,
an iron-clad tank,
lumbering,
mowing,
destroying.
You can save time,
you can spend it.
Like money.

Can you reverse time?
Black holes, worm holes.
Death allusions.
I’ve seen the birth of the universe,
the origin of species,
the tale of Troy.
But I will never see
my grandparents,
my rotting friends.
You can spare time,
you can waste it.
Like money.

But can you reclaim, retrieve,
or defeat time?
Can musty tomes
and yellowed photos
do this?

They say you can
beat the clock.
But you can’t beat time.
You can’t whip it,
maul it,
truncheon it,
but inexorably
you can bet on it.
Like money.

Other Works by Wade R. DeYoung Published by
Diagonals Literary Festival

Rex Quondam, Rexque Futurus

Return to the Sea

tyranny

Snow in Orlando

About the Author

Wade R. DeYoung was born and raised in Michigan. After 28 years, he retired from the U.S. Army as a captain and served as an aircraft armament mechanic, a recruiter, an environmental science officer, and an entomologist. He has a B.A. in English (creative writing track) from the University of Central Florida (2025), an M.S. in public health (medical zoology track) from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (2015), and a B.S. in zoology from Michigan State University (1991). He has written numerous poems, short stories, and one novel. His poems have been published in 100subtexts, Fae Corps Inc Newsletter, Bewildering Stories, Children, Churches and Daddies (Scars Publications), and Diagonals Literary Festival.