Tip Diebæck’s Licentia Pearl
Begin a dialogue with every
clear day occurrence
that is less likely than rain
It’s what they did in Close Encounters
see what it says back
this cocky slim chance
to begin, we asked five hundred sixteen
less fortunate looking aliens and only eighty knew they were ugly
we tried again and left out “only”
this is the chorus:
In an empty shoebox under this bed, more than two billion things occur in 1/3 of a second.
The smallest unit of time any human can register is about 1/3 of a second.
Which is the reason we don’t see our own eyelids blinking.
No matter how swiftly we pull that lid off.
The shoebox looks empty.
The shoebox looks empty.
And the rest of the time, we’re all asleep.
We can’t guess what happens while we’re looking right at it.
At least 10% of our waking lives are spent with our eyes involuntarily closed.
We blink 16,200 times every day. Don’t need to blink so much, we just do. That’s 1.5 hours.
We blink 16,200 times every day. Don’t need to blink so much, we just do. That’s 1.5 hours.
At least 10% of our waking lives are spent with our eyes involuntarily closed.
We can’t guess what happens while we’re looking right at it.
And the rest of the time, we’re asleep.
The Shoebox looks empty.
The Shoebox looks empty.
No matter how fast we pull that lid off.
Which is the reason we don’t see our own eyelids blinking.
The smallest unit of time any human can register is about 1/3 of a second.
In an empty shoebox under this bed, more than two billion things occur in 1/3 of a second.
it can go like that for days
Begin with the many splendorous
people who don’t care at all
and thank them sincerely with gifts
then move on
poking sneaky eyeholes
in paintings like Starlight Worms Head
for sale to the paranoid
on behalf of the dead
and bargain for fun but realize
licentia is a liberty assumed and therefore an unrestrained liberty
yes, people pay for knockoff liberty all the time
that doesn’t make it valuable
most of the liberty you see nowadays is made in China
Marc Phillips pioneered nonfiction poetry.