I have five minutes
\nto lay my life on the line.
\nFive minutes of darkness.
\nBarely enough time to fill a pail,
\nwalk down the street,
\ndetermine my zodiacal sign.
\nIt is five minutes for a poem,
\na smoking gun,
\nand I lay all my sixty-five years out
\nlike a great page,
\nand a minute is gone.
\nI\u2019m not sure I can tell my whereabouts.
\nThe confusion of my life
\nleaves me without a ticket,
\na cause.<\/p>\n
I am too embroiled with issues
\nto see clearly,
\nto find an icon in the desert,
\nto keep a family bible.
\nExcept, with only minutes to go,
\nall the colors come back to me,
\nall the faded designs of the world
\nare waking up,
\nall the noise is returning,
\nand the little songs of my heart.
\nThe wind is coming through the trees
\nwith a thousand arms.<\/p>\n
The day refuses to go away.
\nIt is forever hovering over the sea,
\nand my feet feel the grass
\nso I never need wear shoes again,
\nand love calls like a whistle in the distance,
\nwith a dark face and clear eyes.
\nAnd I empty my sack of all memories,
\nall collections.<\/p>\n
If I had five minutes to live,
\nI would tell you nothing matters,
\nand everything is infinitely precious,
\neven pain.
\nSo I recommend that you lay your life
\non the line,
\nfive minutes, as I am doing today,
\nwhen I never wrote this poem,
\nor wrote one every five minutes until I sleep.
\nEverything matters,
\nevery last second we allow ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have five minutes to lay my life on the line. Five minutes of darkness. Barely enough time to fill a pail, walk down the…<\/p>\n