E-mails Don’t Live in Real Time

E-mails Don’t Live in Real Time

Among my 800 e-mails
Were two that warned me
To beware of the time errors for the
Mark Wunderlich Workshop.
E-mails Don’t Live in Real Time

But I had noted the Newspaper account.
So, at 11 AM e-mail informed me that
The Wonderful Wunderlich Workshop
Commenced at 10 and ended at 1!!!!!
E-mails Don’t Live in Real Time.

I flew from my garage
Clutching the glass of coffee
From 8AM’s feeding break,
And parked carefully at Roe Jan, 25 minutes later.
E-mails Don’t Live in Real Time.

The door locked me out!
A sympathetic poet admitted me.
I tip-toed, shamefacedly, around the table.
Mark immediately rose and made space at his left hand.
Poets live in real time.

I saw a floor-plan in front of the poet
With each person’s name written like each
Of the seated Knights at the Round Table.
He entered my name surreptitiously.
Mark lives in real space.

Never missing focus
Or the beat of the performance on stage.
A living GPS for all of us.
A schemata to guide us quickly to the parking space.
Mark lives in real time,
.
Just right!
With blue-eyed glance and balanced stance
His crisp smile guided us
Through three tight hours of twists and turns.
‘Til we left in real time.

We left,
Pathfinders, paving way
To ultimate delivery.
Real time poets!

Jeanne Poland