Whoever standardized time
did a piss-poor job.
I could tell them for a fact
that Wednesday move more slowly
when there is less to do,
and Mondays always arrive
much quicker than they leave,
yet Fridays take their sweet time
no matter the cheering from the stands
because let’s face it
they’ve worked out who’s top dog
before the firing pistol went off
and they don’t need to rush
to prove their walking home with gold.
Whoever standardized time,
did a piss poor job of the whole damn thing.
Because a second becomes a moment
when the right person holds it,
and a minute becomes an hour,
when your waiting for the answer
or the result,
or the next sentence in a conversation
you really don’t want to see through.
Worst of all is the touch,
that barely lasts at all,
that goes before you noticed it
and leaves you wondering for months
if you should have seen it coming.
Carol J Forrester 
This is fabulous! What a great way to look at time……and ain’t it the truth? Sometimes those Fridays at work lasted f-o-r-e-v-e-r and Sunday night arrived soooo quickly! And some people become angels way way way too soon.
Thanks Lillian. That last bit didn’t actually occur to me, I think that’s because those last two lines have quite a different meaning for me. I’m really glad you like it though.
Well done. Some moments last forever, and some fly by much too quickly.
Thank you, I’m really glad you enjoyed it. Time can be very elastic at times.
Yes, it can!
Oh I so much agree… time has it’s way of not being standard… it all depends what you fill it with… and on the night before the end of the holiday this seems especially apt
Love the strong language
Haha, thanks Bjorn, I don’t tend to swear that much in poems but this seemed appropriate.
Oh, very clever. And true. I wonder about that ending – there’s a mystery there.
It’s a poem I’m trying to work out how to write. I’ll get it down eventually and it’s going into a collection I’m working on but it’s not quite ready to come out yet I don’t think.
This is nothing short of inspirational! ❤❤❤
Thank you. That’s really lovely of you to say.
That’s a very good way of putting it. You are so right! Like meals that take three hours to prepare and ten minutes to eat, the holiday that takes a year to get there and is over five days after it arrives…
Oh Jane, you’ve taken this in yet another way, it’s so interesting all the tangents people have gone off in. You’re completely right though. I hadn’t ever considered it from that stance.
🙂
It’s a matter of perspective isn’t it….some Fridays are just so fast until Sunday, smiles.
I think that’s the crux of it, it all comes down to perspective.
Whimsical and wonderful and I enjoy hearing your reading of it.
Thank you. I almost forgot to add it but I’m trying to be better about recording more of my poems. A few people seem to enjoy them so it seems like a nice thing to do and keeps me in practice at reading them aloud.
Your poem really got to me, Carol, and it is so true! I especially like the lines:
‘Because a second becomes a moment
when the right person holds it,
and a minute becomes an hour,
when you’re waiting for the answer
or the result,
or the next sentence…’
and
‘Worst of all is the touch,
that barely lasts at all,
that goes before you noticed it
and leaves you wondering for months
if you should have seen it coming’.
Haha, that’s pretty much the entire second half, but I’m glad you liked it. There was meant to be a break halfway but I’m still getting to grips with the new editor.
I’ve rejected that new editor – I can’t get on with it at all. I hope it’s not going to be forced on us.
In a bizarre way, I look forward to my transition day, when I emerge beyond the veil to a place where time no longer exists, where past/present/future are an unbroken plane.
A grand synopsis of the passage of time!
Thank you Beverly.
I like the way this builds from a light hearted approach to a more serious side of time…moments we don’t always notice until they are gone or perhaps moments we misread because of our own perspective.
Exactly. I did wonder if this would perhaps be two poems but I’m glad you seem to think the contrast works.
Good description on how Mondays got messed up: “and Mondays always arrive
much quicker than they leave,”
Haha. Yes, unfortunately Monday gets a bad wrap it seems.
love everything about this poem Carol, about how time can be too quick or too slow depending on what we are hoping to happen
Thank you Gina. I’m glad you liked it. Time is certainly fluid if nothing else.
real and fantastic!
Thank you! What a lovely compliment. 😀
When you’re retired
Time passes as you like it
Nap time Supper time
There are some more, Bed time
Night time Day time Breakfast time
I like it Coleen. Today is Grandpa takes kids to Macdonald’s time.
..
That could be an interesting poem. The types of time depending on where you are in life. Perhaps a series of poems.
I fell gladly into your contemplation here of the relativities of time. Wonderfully expressed Carol!
Thank you Rob. I glad you enjoyed it.
Ah, time is such a nuisance. I really enjoyed this soliloquy/observation on the myriad faces of time.
I loved the evocative ending in particular:
“Worst of all is the touch,/that barely lasts at all,/that goes before you noticed it/and leaves you wondering for months/if you should have seen it coming.”
Wise indeed … the longing and waiting prior to an anticipated event and then the reflection of the memory and how it went by so FAST!
“Worst of all is the touch,
that barely lasts at all,”
Ain’t that the truth?! Beautiful poem, a touch lingers when it is gone because we miss it
In my mind this is a slightly different touch actually. It’s the touch that barely lasts at all, that we don’t want, and then it haunts us. In the end it’s come across slightly differently but I think that’s because I needed to write a different poem for that particular moment and instead I was trying to shoehorn it into this one.
Oh, that is different from how I read it. I do think this is such a beautiful, and now a more haunting poem. It is traumatic to have an intrusion like you mention, and I can see how what I had read as longing can also be read as haunting. Time is tricky, even more trick is point of view and the different colors of the world. I think the way that I read the touch was influenced by these beautiful lines:
“Because a second becomes a moment
when the right person holds it,”
which then switch like the abrupt cutting in a haiku to the trepidation and waiting of what seems like a clinical report in the next lines. Bottom line is that this is a fantastic poem, and I enjoyed hearing you read it as well. Always good to see you on the poetry trail. Thank you!
No thank you. That’s such a wonderful comment to read! I appreciate you taking the time.
🙂
Fabulous. Tender and authentic. Thank you.