Time, Time, Time,
See What’s Become of Me
Janet Kuypers
started 5/3/15, finished 5/4/15
The world now relies
on their Cesium-synched watches
so we can be on time
to every single minute
all-encompassing detail
in our little existences,
so we don’t miss a thing.
Can’t let that happen.
‘Cause let’s not kid ourselves,
we internally want
to outshine everyone,
including our friends,
so we post our best
photos on facebook,
we wear that beaming smile
when we talk to people,
and as soon as they turn away
our face stops acting
like we ever cared.
And don’t forget,
we want time on our side
so we can always look young...
My husband took a photo of us
from his smartphone
from his birthday a month ago
and uploaded it to a phone app
that guessed our ages —
It guessed I was
ten years younger.
Cool.
I guess I’m defying time.
(Then again, the app said
my husband was
sixteen years younger.
Hmph.
Well, at least the app guessed
I was still younger than him.)
Isn’t it funny
how we can scrutinize ourselves
by our age,
by our time alive?
‘Cause I think it all boils down
to the concept of time.
We have to out-do everyone
in as little time as possible.
We have to cram
as much as we can
into what little time
we think we have.
We view this precious time
as a resource, like oxygen.*
We all need more time.
But now I’m forced to wonder:
does time
even
exist?
I mean, I know
we all tune our timepieces
to stay in sync
with the rest of the world,
but our earth’s magnetic field
affects how time exists for people.
And for any time difference
you want to write a story around,
you can calculate the strength of gravity
that will give you that time difference.*
I mean, GPS satellites,
because they are farther away
from the earth’s gravitational pull
than us land dwellers,
we adjust the satellite’s time from space
so it aligns
to what us earth dwellers know.
I know, I know,
we decided to measure
this thing we call “time” —
was it when we as farmers
needed it for crops?
Was it when,
we as cavemen
needed it to know
night from day?
I’m babbling.
I’m thinking about this too much.
But the things is,
a ton of people
put a ton of work —
and a ton of time —
into calculating time,
but it makes me ask again:
does time
exist?
Or is it something
we just made up
to help us through
our little lives?
#
Let me ask you this way.
What is time?
Tricky question, isn’t it.
Is it something we use
like a measuring stick
to keep all of our events
in chronological order?
The Greek God of Time
was named Chronos,
which
sounds a bit like
chronology...
So, we just try
to keep it all
in order...
I’m going to a party later.
I went to that party yesterday.
This is a great party.
So if time is really
just a measuring stick,
if that’s what it is,
then
when did it start?
Did it start
when the Big Bang
first started this Universe?
And if that’s the case,
is it only that way
because that’s all we know
about our Universe’s
timeline?
I mean, does time exist
if there is no one around to see it?
And how do you see time anyway?
I know scientists
talk about the four dimensions
in our Universe.
Three spacial dimensions,
and time.
And when I look around me,
I can see far away,
and I can see up close.
I can see above and below me,
and I can continue
to see all these things.
But time,
this elusive “time” thing,
it seems to only let us see
one moment
in
time.
I can’t go back
and relive the past.
I can’t jump forward
and visit my future.
We try to measure time,
but we cannot travel
to different points in time.
So this elusive “time” thing
really keeps me trapped.
And now scientists say
that there is no “time”,
but a single continuum
called
spacetime.
Oh,
now you people
are messing with my dimensions.
This,
when I was wondering
if time even exists.
But wait a minute...
People postulate time travel,
and maybe we do
live in the past.
Because when it comes
to your own brain,
It takes a few millionths of a second
for your brain to put together
this moment in time
before it gets to to your consciousness,
meaning we’re all living
a tiny bit in the past.
And wait, we’re seeing
into the past too —
when the Sun’s rays come to us,
that light we see
came from the sun
eight minutes ago.
We’re seeing light
from eight minutes ago.
And when astronomers see stars
from far away in our Universe
for the first time,
they’re seeing that light
from billions of years ago,
no lie.
So,
although I can’t
jump into a future,
I can at least say
I see the past every day.
And really,
what is this time thing anyway?
Because we now religiously
check out Cesium-synched watches
because we’re trapped
by so much
we think we have to do
in what we think
is
so little time.
Because now that I wonder
on what time really means,
the more mysterious it becomes.
Maybe we should value
every moment
as it comes.
Or maybe we should
chuck our watches
and turn off our cell phones
and refresh ourselves
so we could live
in the moment.
Because whether or not
time exists,
that’s what time
is all about —
living
sequentially
from moment
to moment.
But you know,
ancient cultures
(like Incan and Mayan)
or ancient religions
(like Hinduism or Buddhism)
understood a wheel of time.
They regarded time as cyclical,
and we live through
repeating ages —
and as they say,
history does repeat itself.
So, if us land dwellers
are forced to take our lives
one step at a time,
maybe we can remember time
is one of four dimensions.
Prominent philosophers scream
that time is part of the
fundamental structure
of the universe —
so, maybe it’s just as vital
as how close you are to me.
Time may be as valuable
a resource, like oxygen*
that we should treasure
every moment
like it’s our last.
* Quote from “Interstellar” director Christopher Nolan,
to Neil DeGrasse Tyson in a StarTalk interview, May 2015
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See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading some of her poem “Time, Time, Time, See What’s Become of Me” from her 2015 birthday celebration and from her 2014-2015 poetry performance art book “A Year-Long Journey”, then her poems, “Once They were Moved to This Foreign Land” (written on St. Patrick’s Day) and “Vanishing Psycho in the Rear Window” (written 3/12, on National Alfred Hitchcock Day), at “Poetry Aloud” 3/23/19 (Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera).
See YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading some of her poem “Time, Time, Time, See What’s Become of Me” from her 2015 birthday celebration and from her 2014-2015 poetry performance art book “A Year-Long Journey”, then her poems, “Once They were Moved to This Foreign Land” (written on St. Patrick’s Day) and “Vanishing Psycho in the Rear Window” (written 3/12, on National Alfred Hitchcock Day), at “Poetry Aloud” 3/23/19 (Panasonic Lumix T56 camera).
Enjoy this YouTube video of Janet Kuypers reading her v211 9/23 Down in the Dirt issue/book “All the Stories” poem “Time, Time, Time, See What’s Become of Me” to close her “Poetic License 9/3/23 global open mic” through a Zoom meeting and a Facebook event page (this video was filmed from a Panasonic Lumix 2500 camera; on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, and
Tumblr).
