sunlight blazes through the sky
leaving sweat and tears behind
your eyes and fingers melt away
underneath the burning gaze
you’ve saved the library from its fate
but outside, more fire awaits
the water gnaws at hills and mountains
a pebble at a time, devoured
birds and flowers once filled this land
but time has turned that life to sand
and lest the flow of time abates
you will too befall this fate
while this world of flesh and blood
is as capricious as beloved
each and every moment lives
in the souls of mortals like you