Tempus Neminem Manet

• William Choy, Grade 10, All Saints Anglican School
• Poetry
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

Lady Justice, though I am sans shackle and chain;
My sentence will ever be without denouement.
For I, with mournful tread, remain cheated,
Warden, two decades on, my time is fleeted.
Lissom goddess, I beg! Imbue what your sword stole,
Alas, without return, ‘tis a pyrrhic freedom I live.
Genius shan’t make it anew, nor monarchs procure,
And only immortal verse shall it endure.
In this life, no crowds shall exalt, nor bugle trill,
No records’ll remain, nor mourners weep.
As the waters of age swell around my feet;
Merely, an empty hourglass I shall meet.
Scales tipped, your bandage hides but a lie,
My life now sacrificed, blind justice awry.
Tempus Neminem Manet.
Time waits for no man.