THE SPEED OF LIGHT - POEM

 THE SPEED OF LIGHT

(copyright 2020, by Dave Kiffer



Sometimes as I lay in bed
In the endless hour
Before the room takes shape,
Incrementally, in the light,
I wonder what would happen
If the known world did not return.

Would we just stay put, in this silence,
Peaceable in this limbo, this pre-waking,
This broken pause-button world?
Or would we eventually, impatiently,
Rush to jumpstart the next day,
Heeding the morning’s imperative call?

My thoughts fail to rush the clock,
So the rain rushes them to sleep,
The known world always out waits me
Arriving on its own schedule
In the hours when the speed of light
Slows into an imperceptible crawl.


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