Ten Seconds

  I
   Ten
  seconds
is
   not
   enough
   time

to
   comprehend
the unthinkable
   to remember the face
   of a person you have not
    seen in ten years…to enjoy
   the first smile of the day from
your child...to decide if a
    statement is meant to be
    sincere or ironic…for anyone
    but Olympic-caliber athletes to run
   100 yards…to understand a single
    sentence written by Immanuel
    Kant…to adequately brush your
    teeth…to cycle through all your
    cable channels without stopping
    on any of them…to put in a pair
    of contact lenses…to thread a new
    pair of laces through your sneakers
    to parallel park. to electrocute a prisoner
    to toast a piece of bread…for a minimum
    wage worker to earn two cents…to free a
    CD from its infernal shrinkwrapped packaging
    for an English major to calculate the area of a
    circle with a nine inch radius…to check a book
    out the library…for a computer to boot up…to
    untangle your Christmas light cords…to burn
    five calories…to take a pee…for a man and a
  woman to create just one new perfectly ordinary human being

    II
  Ten
  seconds
is
   enough
  time