that last light bulb

I no longer believe in time
this physics article I read
convinced me of what I had
long suspected
that in spite of the clock in my head
life is really just one event
after another

though I’m not quite ready
to give up on space yet
I’ve begun looking to the future
and some potentially linked experiences
that will likely serve
as milestones
along my timeless road

take the light bulbs I just bought
the package tells me they
last seven you-know-what’s
given even a generous count
five are all I need to buy
I’ll be dead before I can screw in
that last light bulb

then there’s my favorite cereal
looks like I’m going to need
something around eight hundred boxes
and four hundred jugs of milk
before that final event
gets here

but I’m getting morbid
death’s not the only important
thing in life
of course the closer you get
the more consecutive events
the more
it seems like it

so looking on the bright side
of things
if I pass on the next
eight hundred and seventy-five
slices of bread
I will eventually be lighter
by about twenty-five pounds

certainly I don’t want to forget those
short-runs of occurrences that
line up like so many dominoes
if I drive my car two hundred and
sixty-one round trips
accounting for overtime and holidays
I can pay the rent
buy my meals
keep each of those light bulbs burning

don’t want to forget the people
in my life
my dentist says if I will brush
and floss twice daily
let him clean my teeth
on sixty more
equally spaced visits
I can keep them
my teeth

of course there’s our son
he’s a good kid
already has all this time and space
stuff figured out
what I haven’t figured out
is on how many more occasions
he will need to borrow money
it’s almost enough to make me
believe in time again

and then there’s dance lessons
at the rate I’m going
I will need four thousand
six hundred
eighty lessons
before I get half way decent
but if you saw my dance teacher
well
I’d do twice that many

so far
only one anticipated event
has defied my
calculations
I wonder
how many more years
it will take before
I stop loving
you