By David Roth
© 26th January, 2005
Composed two stanzas at a time
On the hour during a very slow
Boring day at work.
I know it’s only been an hour
But lord! It feels like more
That I’ve been pacing back and forth
Across this empty floor
There’s not a living soul nearby
(I think that includes me)
And I’ll be stuck here seven more hours
Until they set me free.
3:00
Two hours have passed since I arrived,
I think the clock has stopped!
I’m talking out loud to myself,
I’m sure my IQ’s dropped.
If things were any slower here,
My mind would drift away.
I have this sense of déjà vu
And it’s still yesterday.
4:00
I finally sold a pair of shoes
To someone old and gray,
Who actually tried to hit on me
(It’s been that kind of day).
And so the day has three hours spent,
Another five to go,
A shotgun could be fired through here,
And never hit a soul.
5:00
The day is half way over
And I find myself at lunch,
The highlight of the day so far:
Some drink, a bit to munch.
But all too soon I must return
To dark pits of despair,
Where time drags at a chilling crawl,
And seems to head nowhere
I think the mushrooms in my lunch
Were something from my past,
A blast from 1968,
The room is spinning fast.
And time has lost all meaning now,
As colors turn and flip,
And flowers grow from clothing racks,
In this strange quantum trip.
7:00
I’m out here on a river boat
Beneath marmalade skies,
The clocking is running backwards now,
As tangerine trees float by.
A thunder rages in my head,
“You cannot use those lines:
Someone else wrote them long ago,
And better than your try.”
8:00
I’m in some sort of temporal flux,
Where minutes pass like hours.
At least the room is slowing down,
And I’ve stopped seeing flowers,
I’m on the downside climb at last.
So little time remains.
With only ninety minutes left,
I may not go insane.
9:00
I’m trying not to notice how
The clock has ceased to run,
And how it’s still so empty here,
It isn’t any fun.
I feel I’m in a twilight zone
Of days that never end,
And then it is tomorrow, and
I do it all again.
