Daylight Savings

You say: let’s fall back

into timelessness

see 2 am twice.

But I have so much to do

before the hour is up:

finish my report, colour-code the closet,

regrout the tub, read that book.

With wide eyes

and a goading grin

you ask:    but what if

this hour        is a silver locket

holding every

shiny wish?

Let’s shut down the club

you and me

and all of humanity

sweating gratitude

onto beer-drenched floors.

Let’s swallow a drug,

make the universe vaster

climb over your neighbour’s fence

pull off sweaters

somersault underwater.

I close my eyes, think:

any wish?

I’d meet my mom on a park bench

sit hip to hip

show her all the Girl Guide badges

she didn’t get to see.

I’d gather together

strangers and intimates,

offer fragrant garlands,

blossoming apologies

for when I was clumsy,

petty and mean.

I’d use every expansive second

to learn kindness,

for in spring

we’ll lose time

rushing, rushing forward.

Farzana Doctor