John Sherer’s poem My Future appeared here in August 2010. Today he explores the concept of time and space management, a subject that fits when you’re just out of school, looking for work, and trying to figure out where to live.
Venn Diagram
By John Sherer
I need to write about lines
When nature seems so round
If we were to live in circles
Sharing would abound
For dividing space by angles
Optimizes assigned space
And because angles can be matched
None’s space would go to waste
If one were to match circles
They’d have to overlap
Otherwise between these circles
Would be a wasted gap
So structure me, you exact line
I like order, even my time
Is confined by a schedule
As if time is a thing of rule
Could we not simply learn to share
Our space, our time, just like our air
That seems to be in abundance
Rid of planners and apartments
Yet time and space in line makes sense
To cooperate with the next
Who steadily marches in step
Through space divvied by compartments
If circles were our way of life
Then the plural would not suffice
For one circle could only be
To utilize what’s lost between
But perhaps this is what exists
That, inside one, we all resist
The natural need to organize
Rigidity to optimize
Assign my time and space in line
But I’ll decline my spot in line
For I’ve just time and space to share
So I’ll not wait and waste the air
I’ll not touch with boundaries
Trespass on my property
Welcome us from home to home
Resist temptation of a throne