Between this-and-that is a vast expanse,
but you’ll never notice until you stop counting
nanoseconds on your fingers.
Your method may be digital, yes,
and your enumerations are impressive,
but have you ever dared step inside a nanosecond,
dared step into its timelessness?
Outside the skin of nanoseconds minutes are masters,
seconds are its ground, and both demand obedience,
they insist upon the sacrifice of attention,
and when attention’s sacrificed: essence is barely felt.
Everyone’s too busy.
Everything is counted .. tagged .. named.
Essence feels distant.
It’s like looking through the wrong end of an oscilloscope.
Seen as tiny as nothing, its wave forms are impossible to read.
From the outside of nanosecond skin time feels immense,
but only to a point— outside there are countdowns,
divisions, products, sums
But on their inside conditions flip: the width, height, and depth
of nanoseconds distends, everything is accommodated,
everything has the space to be.
On the inside of time life counts,
systems breathe. It’s another scene.
Is this why days
seem short?
Stop counting,
step in,
see
Jim Culleny, © 2/22/23
Blink 