The Ticking of Time

I settle back and watch as the clock ticks by the time
Each second sounds like heartbeats thumping deep within my mind.

Another night has come and gone, I've waited patiently
But the phone has not rung at all, to say where he could be.

He left the house at seven, he was going out with friends
But his curfew has come and gone and he's not come back again.

I go into the kitchen and put on the coffee pot
I check the phone to see if, maybe, the charge was lost.

It's working great, which doesn't put my mind at ease
Now I start the phone calls to friends, hospitals and police.

His friends hadn't seen him since he left at ten last night
And the police wouldn't fill out reports 'til 72 hours had gone by.

The Hospitals had no admittance that met his physical phi sic,
Just questions left unanswered as to where my son could be.

Still time is ticking by so quickly, I sit in hurt despair
I'll have to go out searching... But to start, I know not where.

I grab my purse and keys, as I'm heading for the door
I throw it open wide and see my son there on the porch.

Sleeping on the porch swing, because he had got home late
He didn't want to wake me up, lost his key, was the story he'd relate.

The relief that washed over me was like a warm cocoon
But he should've woke me up last night so he could sleep in his own room.

Now he's grounded to the house, perhaps for eternity
Because He doesn't understand the hell, his actions heaped on me.

The moral of this story is for all you kids out there
Don't stay out past curfew, Your parents really care
It isn't that you broke the rule, that causes us to weep
It's the fact you didn't care enough, to wake us from our sleep.