X.J. Kennedy is such a wonderful poet. If you read it, read it aloud. Poetry should ALWAYS be read aloud.
"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?
