Seconds

If you are granted
three wishes, make the first wish
infinite wishes

Nothing in fine print
should prevent you from taking
all that you require

No one in this life
gets what they require—that’s why
wars begin with war

No cease fires here
nor other tinderboxes
set to light with light

Sunlight that falls on
your face took millions of years
to reach your fragile

Then interrupted
by a passing cloud which took
a second to form

For my second wish
I would like perhaps to take
my first bad wish back

Echoes of the spheres—
regret makes it possible
for the earth to turn

Maybe it turns back
gets tired of its direction
every now and then

When calendars end
our only recourse is to
stop a horse midstream

Which it found a way
to step within more than once
tired of its crossing

Across galaxies
only one thing can travel—
dim radio song

If there were no eyes
we could not see the sound made
when strung together

Like this like that like
this like that like this like that
like this like that and

Infinity smiles
it makes nothing not a sound
in love with itself

And its productions
of time quietly humming
within the bottle