A Second Just Passed for Every Man in the World
And in that second,
three people died and a couple dozen,
who knew them quite well, felt
an unimaginable grief for those who were lost,
their own lives never the same after.
But let’s not forget the five people who were born—
some of which were intentional;
five new mothers made in a moment of Pain
and happiness—
the greatest happiness each has ever known—
apart from the one who is abandoning her newborn
because she’s too young or old or inexperienced
or, perhaps, she is one of the two who just died,
her life passed to this child,
who will never have known a mother from the first second of life.
Another Second Just Occurred
And the world shook
as a great downpour of rain
added to someone’s worst second, perhaps their last second,
as another won the lottery and it was
beautiful outside—the birds sang only there
for only that second, while a doe was shot dead.
That second saw a dozen people
bend down and ask another dozen
to make them the happiest in the world
and, in just another,
six more people are divorced.
Experts Say Every Second Is Getting More Violent
As a bullet flew,
taking only a fraction of a second
to reach its intended target—
if it had a specific target—
the next fraction of a second ending
a many-year run at life;
the remainder of that second was spent in a silent shock.
Only for a second, the whole world watched
headlines of blood spilt on battlefields,
while the years that followed in a push for inches
would be forgotten by all but those who fought;
sitting in a hole, a man waited for what felt like forever
to see if he would still be alive a second from now.
And to some, the seconds were too long,
too miserable, and they couldn’t bear it
crying out to anyone while the watch ticked slowly,
yet no one answered, their heads turned away for that second,
distracted by the great many things around them—
a lonely last second.
All in that Damn Second
Wait a second!
for a million men to tie their shoes
while planes took flight and trains thundered past
many miles of land but cars stopped
at the light and horns blared so loud,
drowning out an onslaught of curses from behind the wheel
or a mother’s cry for the last memory of her boy
running across the road while she looked away for a second,
or a young couple singing along to the radio,
or an old man smiling from the passenger side at his daughter,
or the two children—one complaining while the other snored—
or another driver’s shouts and cries,
incessantly banging on the wheel over what life now was;
meanwhile, the crooked, racist cop blares the sirens—
triggered by a split-second decision—
prepared to tarnish the names of good men in uniform:
an unjust second weakens years of work.
Every Living Person Has Experienced the Very Same Second
And what a time it’s been
in a blink-and-you’ll miss it moment,
that’s known more beauty and ruin
than most could know in a life-time,
and yet still likely to fall out of the minds
of most when the subsequent minute passes.
We’ll never know so many of the things that just transpired,
like quite how many words were just written,
and, of them, how many we may go on to read,
or how many equations were just solved,
or how many diseases were just cured,
or how many great ideas were just manifested.
Eight billion people each partook in this one second,
I hear the whispers of doubt some paid to divinity
and so many praying for change and good—
so many without so much as a second of doubt.
There is no way to count how many people
looked up to the sky, our sky,
and said to themselves that nothing is unique,
overwhelmed by a universal end
that takes more every second,
not knowing how to spend
this never-again-occuring,
all encompassing,
one
second.
Or perhaps,
like me,
they zoned out,
and missed that second entirely.
Comments