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Celan coaxed time from a nutshell,
Tried to teach it a thing or two.
Time promptly turned around and went
Back in its shell, so Celan quit.

You may have tried to quit yourself.
Whether you deserved to do so,
Others may waste time deciding,
Winnowing chaff from suffering

To glean biographical truth.
In truth it was nothing to do
With suffering or its virtues,
As anyone knows who’s tried it.

It was just that, being human,
You assumed any problem must
Be in need of a solution,
And time a problem you could fix.

But time gets tired of learning tricks,
Always longing to turn its back
And crawl inside its sleepy shell.
Time lets its teachers learn from hell.