Time Like a Rubber Band

by Elizabeth Slaughter-Ek

Time like a rubber band
stretches slow--
--ly out snaps
together and speeds
ahead.
Never enough for some things
and others drown in excess.
No compass for direction;
are we walking in the past?
Fling ourselves against the sling,
shot from the band into future tense
we're flying now and memory runs together
until the slowness makes us dense.