Limited Time
By Stacks Poets
Published 1 January 2021
by Kerin Pollack
With limited time:
500 days.
12,000 hours.
720,000 minutes.
43,200,000 seconds.
There are not enough moments left
and I’m not the man I think I am.
Roll Up! Roll Up!
Like the dustbowl carnivals of old.
Come, see my soul.
grotesque and caged,
a freak show attraction.
Roll Up! Roll Up
to side who alley!
Come, throw rings
around my dreams
and win a prize.
Behind the canvas
of an exhibition marquee
lit up in a paddock
a revivalist preacher
rolls a cigarette
and drinks from a bottle
needing liquid courage
to preach my thoughts.
With limited time:
500 days.
12,000 hours.
720,000 minutes.
43,200,000 seconds.
There are not enough moments left
in which I can undo a lifetime of habit.
written in response to exercise two