The Last Minute

I miss a minute

Every day

I see it go by

I watch it

I can’t do anything about it

And I thought it was just me

And then I told my friend about it

And she said--

Well, it’s only a minute

It’s only a minute

But as I get older

I realize

That one day

I’ll want

All those minutes back

All those minutes

That seemed brief

As they went out the door

All those minutes

That sped up

When I passed this age

And that age

When I was young

Nothing went by me

That fast

And when it tried

I could grab it

If I wanted to

But I never wanted to

I used to push the minutes

Out the door

Begging them to go

So I could get

To someplace else

Where there weren’t so many minutes

Because I thought of that place

That room

That room with only so much time

As a place where the grown-ups go

And all I wanted

Was to be grown
So that I could be in control

Not realizing that they don’t keep control

In the grown-up room

They keep it

Somewhere else

And they never tell you

Where it is

Yesterday I missed a minute

And before I knew it was gone

Another one slipped past me

Then another

Then another

I thought--

Does this mean I’m dying?
Is this what dying is?

The room I was in

Emptied out

And the very last minute

Put on its hat

And asked if it could speak with me

For whatever a minute is

To a minute

I said that was all right

And the minute told me

That I wasn’t dying

But that I was

Running out of time

And that they’re not the same thing

Although it’s hard for us

As people

To understand the difference

I asked the last minute

What happens

When you run out of time

And it told me

That you move on the earth

Like a car or a tractor

Or something that can travel

But not traverse

You can go on vacations

You can go to work

You can go out to eat

But you’re not really going anywhere

And you leave no footprints

And you make no difference

The last minute told me

That in some ways

This kind of living is noble

But that most people would panic

If they were made aware

That this is how their life is

That they ran out of time

And kept going

That the game was over

The clock ran out

The ref called the game

And they kept dribbling the ball

I asked the last minute

If it would stay a little longer

But a minute is a minute

Even when it’s the last one

As it was leaving

I asked if there were any more minutes

And the last one said

It would prefer not to answer

That question

I understood

And I understood

But understanding

Was the hardest part