Nearly Two and a half Billion – That’s all!
Two billion, four hundred and seven million, nine hundred and sixty eight thousand and one,
That’s all.
Less than a measly two and a half billion.
Though I did not know that at the time – or ever!
It seemed a lot.
Plenty to squander.
Plenty to waste.
They’d never run out.
I thought they’d last for ever.
I took little notice
As they slipped past.
Nothing changed.
Yet it changed
Imperceptibly
As each one slipped away.
2,407,968,001 was just a number;
A number that contained everything;
The whole universe;
A whole life.
When there were just nine hundred thousand and one left,
I had to accept
That one day soon
The universe would have to do
Without me.
Suddenly, each and every one of the remaining nine hundred thousand
Was precious.
None were to be wasted.
Every single one
Had to be wrung dry.
I begrudged each loss.
There was nothing I could do.
Those last ten days
Were not the best.
I found myself
Wishing for the earlier ones
That I had carelessly thrown away.
Once they were gone
You can never get them back.
Recalling them is not the same;
They change.
Perhaps, with the very last one,
All two billion, four hundred and seven million, nine hundred and sixty eight thousand and one
Flash past
In an instant?
Vividly, in full technicolour,
With surround sound.
And in that instant we can revel in it all!
We can but hope!
Opher – 5.12.2022
A life is measured in seconds.
We don’t know how many there are to come but we do know how many there have been.
When we are young we think things go on forever. There are many times when we want those seconds to flow by faster and faster; we’d willingly give hundreds of thousands of them away. We can’t wait for them to pass.
As we get older, and things are no longer as bright, as easy, as carefree, we think more of how we might have better employed the ones we carelessly let go.
It’s all measured in seconds. We don’t know how many but we can choose what we fill them with.