Killing Time

Robert Ronnow
The Imaginary i

Killing Time

I’m wasting time making lists of movies to watch
Plenty of time, plenty of wine, plenty of information
It doesn’t really matter what I do with my time

Great buildings are built that nature destroys in time with a little wind, water, fire
The heavens are having a fine time belting it out

What is right fits the time perfectly, it is all out of my hands
We are nothing in powerful time’s grip
You can leave at any time, you can return without being seen

* * *

Across time the Terminator travels
We await our time or have had it or are having it
Life’s brevity compared to the time taken to carve the canyon

Pedestrians are infinite, times two shoes
I must not now slide off the road into time

Most men, most times, abide in peace
A small rift in time opens, drifting toward armageddon or solutions to equations
Interpreting the known facts accumulated over time and generations

* * *

May you live in interesting times—wish or curse?
Each of us has moved on many times. Time, our moment, is the mercy of eternity.
Humanity followed time here. Then snow again in time.

It’s a waste of time to imagine being dead
Time the magic moments to come

What occupies the time beyond the furthest edge of space?
Community across time and graves
Leaving when one’s time and work is done

* * *

One peeper keeps peeping in time to a satellite blinking
What percent of all time is that?
Do the much-admired writers of our time die more content than that?

I revise some poems a hundred times, maybe more
It is the only way it could be said by this person in this time and place

The best time to write is when you don’t have much to say
Your soul is immortal, it exists outside of time. Just kidding.
Every time you ask for guidance you receive it. Also just kidding.

* * *

Cans in a pantry, books on a shelf, to the end of time
Pass the heavy-hanging time playing pinochle and pool
In times of prosperity we forgot to be austere. Maybe is a long, long time.

Promises are broken all the time, to others and the self
Yet I find I am attracted at times to philosophies in short skirts, jewels and eyes lined with kohl

None find their way without following leaders sometimes the wrong way
Not guessing any better than they at the time what love meant
Time’s irreversible, change is all that’s visible, the linear is circular

* * *

All joy, all times. A quiet place and time to think simply and deeply.
Unopened time slides by inexorably
Suppose everything’s fine and you’ve wasted your time wearing sackcloth over your soul?

We’re taking on everyone, one at a time. Time now for rest.
About the dark times will there be singing? Yes, there will be singing and sometimes the songs
will be sidesplitting.

It’s just a matter of time before the public ignores the 24-hour news cycle
I would rather watch Lalaland ten times over than receive a visit from our military
The nurses are not particularly interested in what I do with my time

* * *

Where a man is at, at all times, no matter what
Anyone can be president, that’s been proven time and time again
Whatif whatnot oldtimer. Part-time tutor, supermarket bagger.

So small time I have time and no enemies or friends
I’m gonna be huge when I’m dead John said last time we spoke

Then it will be the time of moths or fireflies, mud road, red-winged blackbird
Bump bump bump down the igneous rocks of life, take the boulders two at a time down
I’m killing time before it kills me. Ha ha.