JUST A MINUTE AGO!

I often find it very amazing

how humans underestimate

the power of time.

How oft we seem to be repeating

the very same mistakes

done in bold for all of us to see;

by our ancestors.

In the wildlife animal kingdom,

a minute is worth a heartbeat:

that resonates between;

hunger and full stomach,

death and survival!

just a minute,

wait a second,

i will be with you in a jiffy,

just hang in there!

Time?

What time are you talking about

in this time and age?

Only if I took more time

to think about every single step

I took in this life of mine;

then perchance,

I might have delayed and averted

a shipload of mishaps

and lifetime of miseries and regrets:

I keep seeing every time

I look back over my shoulders!

All this undoing of my life by myself;

my past failures,

are supposed to be behind me:

common reasoning tells me; but,

they seem to forever linger in my mind

as I struggle to find my way through

the mirage of confusing horizon.

why doesn’t life ever afford us the time

and the privilege of reminiscing over

and celebrating our successes:

which are always in the majority?

Why does time always seem to be fading

faster than the speed of light

and just why do we always find ourselves,

on the other side of time;

when that very important minute

has passed us by?

Please give me a minute

to figure this one out,

he pleads with me:

and, a minute later

the same man has

helplessly fallen asleep.

I stood there in wonderment,

as I try to recollect in my mind;

as to what went wrong:

just a minute ago!

I take another minute

and still find myself wondering

just about the same minute ago

in another minute fast paced by time.

Just a minute ago,

two best friends,

hugged each other and said goodbye.

Just a minute ago,

phone rang, and a parent spoke:

we're sorry to inform you,

your friend has died:

just a minute ago!

procrastination is not a thief of time,

but rather a full definition thereof.

We would have had better luck

of stealing more time

to our advantage

had we used procrastination

as a thief to poke on time!

If time was steal-able

through thievery then,

none of us living or dead;

would have any time left

to regret it.

we’d all be right on time

and always so;

imagine what a wonderful life

we all could have had!

Just a minute ago,

I thought about these thoughts,

I thought of time.

Just a minute ago

I wrote these thoughts into words,

that can help you read my thoughts.

Just a minute ago,

you started perusing on these verses,

my thoughts and my words, exactly and;

just a minute ago,

I wondered if these verses, these lines,

meant anything to you!

Just a minute ago

another child went missing,

and the parents were reduced to tears

and turned into emotional wrecks.

Just a minute ago,

another young woman

was found raped and murdered

in South Africa, and;

Just a minute ago,

another suicide bomb,

went off in Kabul,

killing more than eighty

and leaving scores seriously injured!

Just a minute ago,

I flicked on the switch

to lighten my darkened room

as I sit down to write these thoughts.

Just a minute ago,

I switched off the light to sleep

and “gave the world back to God” and;

the same darkness

I had swathed out of my room;

returned in seconds!

just a minute ago!

Copyright © 2017 Sydney Pikelela Gutyungwa,