How Long is a Lifetime?

How long is a lifetime? Is it years or the weight of a glance? Is it my grandfather’s breath in December Or the silence he left in advance? How long is a goodbye When it echoes for decades in dreams? If I close my eyes at twenty Will I still be twenty in the seams? I measured time by the length of a laugh, Not the tick of a clock, not the math. A single word from her Felt longer than whole summers passed. So how long is a lifetime... When the seconds don’t last? There were Sundays that aged me in minutes, Mondays that vanished in smoke. I’ve sat in rooms where a minute took hours, Where apologies drowned when we spoke. And I wonder if ghosts know the time Or just haunt what they remember. If grief keeps its own calendar, Then I’m stuck in September. I measured time by the length of a laugh, Not the tick of a clock, not the math. A single word from her Felt longer than whole summers passed. So how long is a lifetime... When the seconds don’t last?