The Z poem. Another tricky one, until I remembered a German phrase I happened upon years ago…

Zeit ist kostbar

1
One thousand times
sixty times
sixty times
twenty-four times
three hundred sixty-five times…

That is the question, isn’t it?

2
I remember
an afternoon in Tucson
store shelves
and a Tonka truck

a memory
clouded over long ago

by the law
of diminishing returns

3
There’s always the matter
of elasticity

experienced every day
but spoken of only in terms of theory
and whispers

4
Watches always irritated the skin
on my wrist

Fortunately, I developed
a good sense of time without one

5
Tension dissipates from springs
batteries—and people—die

but the count goes on

(26 November 2016—edited slightly November 27th)