At the foot of my bed

At the foot of my bed, there's a clock -
blue-green glow marking

time

and as I lay there, I watched it
and I tried to time the change of minutes

...counted 54 seconds from 1:42 am to 1:43 am

tried again, staring, counting loudly in my head
spent a minute and eight seconds

to 1:44 am

I'll get it right.

Soon it was 2:12, and I was still trying to count the seconds
but never moving, never blinking, just staring at the clock
counting seconds, knowing I'll get it right.

2:13 am

Somehow I fell asleep
Unaware, for a small while, of the passing of time.


At the side of my bed there's a calendar.
Brown and red image of an Autumn scene marking

time

Funny, though - It used to say 1974...

How much time have I spent, unblinking, counting Autumns

trying to get it right.

At 10:12 am on a Fall day in 2014, I took down the calendar
and unplugged the clock.

and finally

Got it right.