The Long History of a Day

Any day. They’re all long.
The slow ones feel longer.
The fast ones seem longer

In memory, but all
Of them are multistage,
And even the routine,

Run-of-the-mill day turns
And turns before it ends
By turning into more

Day at the other end..
Humans never have found
A temporal unit

Ideally body-scaled
To body-scaled events.
Hours are arbitrary,

As are minutes, seconds—
None of them fit—too quick
Or excess. Humans fit

Awkwardly in all days,
And who can say how long
An important event

Should, exactly, take? Meals,
Conversations, tasks, fights,
Surprises, and setbacks

Can fit by the dozens
Or tens, or quite a few.
A day is wheeled fortune

Spun and carrying on,
Almost stopping, almost,
But then, no, more ticks past.