An Instant Is Enough

Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.
― Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

They say an instant is enough
To act, commit, decide, express
Years in making
Memories of merged moments
Trickles down to a second
A tipping point
Things go either down or
Soars all the way up
Many such probable paths
Some crowded, some lonely
Ordinary instants
Endless possibilities
They say an instant is enough
To react, desist, defer, conceal
Years in making
Still, ordinarily
An instant is enough

How many people I've looked

I wonder how many people I've looked at all my life and never seen.
― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

 

Do I look up to you
Struggle for words
Frames and formations
Do I overlook everything else
None of me makes any sense
Nothing of you makes sense
Paucity of passions
Empty of emotions
I travel with so many
Many faces I've known
Nothing of them I know
Do you look up to me
and find words
Does a glance of me
Gives away any sense
or everything is lost upon
Remembrance