WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4REAL TIME

Real time,
or, “in real time,”
was the exact expression
he used in easy conversation
as if everybody would know
what he meant.

He had that same self-satisfied
bordering on disgust look
that’s fixed in my mind
as the face of my high school physics teacher.

What the hell is real time?
I want to know!
Compared to what?

Is this stuff I’ve been swimming sometimes
wading mostly through
not real time?

Is bathroom time not real time?
How about lunch?

Is there more or less of real time
than whatever the alternative is?

I understand centuries and decades, years, months, weeks, and days.
I know what a minute is.
Don’t mess with my head
by suggesting I’ve wasted...
what?