Topical Guide 879
Mark Dorset
Metaphors and Similes
Hourglass, Life’s passage; Year’s passage, Life’s passage
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 2:
ON THE WAY back home, when I was about halfway back, I throttled down and chugged along slowly to give myself some time to think. The bay was calm. The pale afternoon light flickering on the surface struck an autumnal note of things drawing to a close, of time running out. I was just beginning to try to sing the chorus to “September Song” when I spotted a rowboat ahead with someone standing in it, waving his arms. When I drew closer, I saw that it was my rowboat and that the arm-waver was Lou, the grumpy guy. I pulled the launch alongside.
“Perfect timing!” Lou sang out. “This thing really does leak.” The water was a couple of inches below the gunwales. I threw Lou a line, and when the rowboat was secure for towing, I extended a hand to him. Clambering aboard the launch, Lou said, “I was sitting there saying to myself, ‘Lou, if you get out of this alive, it’s time you recognized that most of the sand in the hourglass of life is in the bottom half,’ you know what I mean?”
“Yeah,” I said, . . .
See also:
Metaphors and Similes: Wandering the Streets of a Town TG 626, Clam Chowder TG 777, The River Meander, Meandering TG 783, River’s End, Life’s End TG 783, Developing a Photograph TG 831, Fire TG 866
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