‘The Right Time’
Suwan Choi is an artist inspired by the beauty of insects. Through vibrant, detailed work, she captured the intricate patterns and forms of these creatures, aiming to raise appreciation for their role in nature.
The Right Time
I know people, slow as snails,
who take time to notice their clock
wiping its face every hour,
who watch the boats leave the bay each day,
who listen weekly for bells that call to worship.
they celebrate birthdays bundling a life each year
and routinely review obituaries,
marking death’s triumph once in a lifetime.
they act as if they have all the time in the world.
others never have enough time.
anxious our moon will abandon its orbit
or the sun will burn itself out,
they spend, spend, spend.
you see them glance at their watch
reflecting on the brevity of life,
if only for a second.
impatient with life, forever on the move,
they act as if the right time is always now.
in my youth, parents talked about saving time,
about managing or killing it,
even making up for lost time⎯creating it.
my children talk about space-time:
time that speeds up and slows down;
differences in time on earth, on the sun,
or some other place deep in space.
I think of time becoming short and thin,
until the long night sets each clock right again.
John M. Davis currently lives in Visalia, California. His work has appeared in numerous journals, including The Comstock Review, In These Times, The West Trade Review, Gyroscope Review, The Ekphrastic Review (Canada), Constellations and Reunion: The Dallas Review. “The Mojave”, a third chapbook, was published by the Dallas Community Poets.
