Be_flummoxed

Never in seven decades could this be spoken.
Never for a moment would it be rational to have told you.
Read between the lines, although the lines are blank:
Never for a stroke did my pen repeat your name.

Never for a minute did the river come to pass;
Never did a lightning flash illuminate that landscape.
Saturated subsoil lies heavy underfoot:
Never for a thousand years did the writing come to light.

Never for a second, compliant with the speed of sound,
Never for an instant could reverberate that word,
Echoing down the roads of time, an urge to overtake it:
Never in a lifetime could anticipate your face.

And all things have their laws, which reason can determine,
And spirit governs matter, yet lets it keep appearances.
What’s hidden moves by other rules, before the time arrives:
And we were known before the time, before you were born.