My Childhood Metronome

Childhood echoes bounce through my window
A nostalgic drumming that still peeks through my blinds
A beat with no answer
A tune without time
The metronome pauses for years without warning

Is it battery-run, did the battery die?
Can you replace something that was never alive?
Or just spark with what fuels an all-natural engine?
A hybrid of sorts, retains only your mention.

Childhood ghosts creep up on me slowly
The metronome teases like a lunchroom bully
It ticks to the rapid beat of my heart
Matches unsteady speeds that can’t keep me apart

And the love in this speed ignites life in non-living,
Light in the darkest of those done believing,
Hope in the worst parts of the webbed corners,
And faith in the surest of ambitious forewarners.

Childhood laughter keeps up on replay
The giddiness leaving beaver teeth shining,
Swirling ten years through a chiseled jaw-line,
Memories mapping a tight compass bind