5 of "19"

[Five pieces of my epic poem/long-ass poem 'Nineteen', and just a taste of the insane stream-of-conciousness writing that ensued. -Theo]


1.
Today’s the big day!
It doesn’t feel very big.

Look at me,
I’m presenting myself on this stepping stone
Give us a spin!
A whole 19 years old!

Do I say “all that?” or “that’s all?”
I’m not sure.


2.
It feels like it all started yesterday
...If yesterday started ages and ages ago

Or maybe its vice versa.
Maybe I’ll never know.


3.
Well, happy birthday!
Enjoy yourself!

Its really just another day.
What else is new, but you?
And the people younger then you.
And the people older then you!
And the people exactly your age!
Surely, that’s impossible.
Unless someone held a stopwatch
at the very moment you made
your first cry
as
your last foot
slipped out.
But
even that could be inaccurate
if he wasn’t looking,
or his hands were slow…


4.
In the grand scheme of everything,
We’re all new.

If you fit the entire life of the earth
on a 12 month calendar,
Humans have only existed for two minutes
And the dinosaurs died in September!
Imagine that…
So much for back to school...


5.
But even human existence is really big.
So is a millennia, and a century, and a decade.
A year can be big. A day can be big.
Today is big, right?

I wrote all that in a minute.
See? Even minutes are big.

But 525,599 minutes later
is another year.

Minutes feel small now.