The Oracle and the Hourglass
by Lenora Rain-Lee Good

Any may approach the Oracle of Time to watch the sands fall
through the hourglass. They do so at their own risk,
for it becomes hypnotic to watch the sand fall, to watch her
well-manicured hand reach from the sleeve of her finely woven
spider silk robe to turn the glass at the appropriate instant.
She blesses them with her smile. Many stand, mesmerized,
count the grains by color, by shape, until their eyes, held open,
unblinking in the desert air, become dry, and know blindness.
The few willing, able, to pay either with coin or service,
are told what the patterns formed by the hundred-and-twenty
colors of sand mean. It is up to the supplicant to interpret
the revelation as they travel on. The others remain, locked
in a stasis only the Oracle can free, to spend eternity
bewitched by the sands in the hourglass of time.