151: How long is ten minutes?/or eight?...

How long is ten minutes?

          or eight?

                       or five?

I’m not sure of all this time

          I can speak iambic pentameter,

          is there anybody here who can translate for me?

How many feet are there in a minute,

          can anyone tell me?

Are there any traffic officers here tonight?

         How many lines per hour am I travelling?

How many seconds are there in a pause?

         If there’s some one out there with a stop watch

         get ready

         there’s one coming up

How long was that?

How much longer does that leave me?

These poems don’t have walls to hang clocks on

they weren’t born with wrists and can’t wear watches

These poems never went to school

and don’t know how to tell time anyhow

I’m wondering how

you breathe into a poem

to give it enough life

to make it immortal

I wonder what happens to immortality

when it’s told it has

10, 8, or 5 minutes

I wonder if it laughs,

does it ignore the telling,

or maybe it nods patiently and goes about its business

no matter how long it takes

to leave the page



©2010 by Jonathan Neske

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