Time & Task

to Eliot Weinberger on his LXXV

I.

Madagascar:
                               “a rice cooking”
                                                                   (about half an hour)
                               “a locust frying”
                                                                   (a split second)
Sioux:
                               “dies in less space
                               than a roasting of maize”
                                                                   (under fifteen minutes)
Burma:
                               monks trained
                               in the increments of dawn
                                                                   (sifting daybreak
                                                                   through their fingers
                                                                   like bolts of lotus silk)
Chile:
                               an Ave Maria said aloud
                               measures a soft-boiled egg
                                                                   (earthquakes lasting
                                                                   two or three credos)

II.

I have aced time
                               now doth time ace me
I attend to tides
                               in deathspan
& clock
                               the rings of trees
once in a blue moon
                               a cada muerte de obispo
tous les trente-six du mois
                               nur alle Jubeljahre
I think the hours
                               might be enough
& it occurs to me
                               all it takes
is a “pissing while”
                               for mica to turn
to meerschaum
                               or love
to dust
                               who would not exchange
a foot-length of jade
                               for a sundial’s inch
of shade