I am considering
the quantum computer
because of an unread book
which is squashed

between two others
above me on the shelf
beside this old couch
I find myself quietly lying on

while the world spins
all around me.
There is a child
in the next room

with a hole but no door
to dampen the between of us.
It is late and he should
be off to bed

but despite the distraction
he causes by watching a film
while wearing headphones
and commentating

none the less throughout
I cannot raise myself
(in either sense)
to send him up

and into the darkness.
His mother
is already above us
tucked into a different bed

but also watching
a production originally designed
to be broadcast on television
but mostly consumed

in vast sessions
while supine
with laptop.
Which brings us

to quantum computers
and the necessary circle
of some connected sense.
The book is called

'A Short Cut In Time'
which seems to suggest
some chance of dodging
the dull bits of an evening

but would we really do so
if we could?
It might be a short life
and who would choose

or opt for that?
The fact of it
and it's a pleasing one
is that if we had the choice

of skimming the slow bits
the boring or annoying bits
the arguments or hunger
frustration and uncertainty

but then realized
if we did so
that what time remained
would go by too fast

we might instead resolve
to make all the moments
either have some value
or at least be observed

and appreciated
for their finer points.
I'm almost sure
Mister George Johnson

the book in question's author
explains just this
and it is a valuable
and pertinent thought

and one now I think of it
I need waste none
of this all too brief life
I am living by reading further.

 

 

{for FS - or at least with him in mind}