I am hurried, harried,
hunched over the hoarded treasure
of every minute. You, too?
Do you hover, mutter to yourself
to make haste, to get to the next minute’s
task, and the next?
Today, our homework:
Hold time in an open palm
Stretch your body
Even you
Even I
have time to stretch for one long breath
and then another.
Our long lists will wait for us.
Maybe they will grow calmer too
as they watch us—each inked-in item:
Meeting agenda,
Grocery list,
Gifts waiting to be wrapped and unwrapped—
Maybe they will wait with more patience now
the agenda to include cookies,
the milk and bread and clementines dozing
in the grocer’s cart,
the unwrapped recognizing
this gift of now
Puff Of Smoke Poems 