Real Time

Real time,

or, “in real time,” 

was the exact expression

he used in easy conversation

as if everybody would know

or should 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!

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?

What kind of time?

With clocks and calendars?