"The Purpose of Time Is To Prevent Everything from Happening at Once"

X. J. KENNEDY

"THE PURPOSE OF TIME IS TO PREVENT

EVERYTHING FROM HAPPENING AT ONCE"

Suppose your life a folded telescope

Durationless, collapsed in just a flash

As from your mother's womb you, bawling, drop

Into a nursing home. Suppose you crash

Your car, your marriage-toddler laying waste |

A field of daisies, schoolkid, zit-faced teen

With lover zipping up your pants in haste

Hearing your parents' tread downstairs - all one.

Einstein was right. That would be too intense.

You need a chance to preen, to give a dull

Recital before an indifferent audience

Equally slow in jeering you and clapping.

Time takes its time unraveling. But, still,

You'll wonder when your life ends: Huh? What

happened?

Structure

18 lines · 4 stanzas