An American administration lasts four, maybe eight years.
Its impact, for better or worse, drags on for lifetimes.
Ages ambulate
for years.
Not Advents: four weeks, tops.
An afternoon can drag on days –
as third acts can, when flops.
An attosecond…? Light takes time
to make those two short hops!*
* An attosecond measures the
time light takes to travel the width
of two hydrogen atoms, about one
quintillionth of a second.
Blips are brief. And as for beats…?
But fractions of a bar.
Some thirty minutes, bells at sea.
(In class, bells fifty are.*)
Biennia engage two years,
then bid one, "Au revoir."
* Back in the day, the length of
a typical high-school algebra class in
minutes (though feeling far longer
to some observers).
The time a candle takes to burn
runs several hundred hours.
A century…? Eight hundred
thousand hours – and more -- devours.
(The first depends on how one takes
account of candlepowers.)
One’s life spins seven decades out –
in years, that's three score ten
(assuming decades ten years span):
so scrawls the Psalmist's pen.
(A day...? In hours, twenty-four:
so chimes Old Smoke’s* Big Ben.)
* A nickname originally
bestowed on London due to its smog.
The moniker’s persisted.
An epoch's length's determin’d
by a slew of 'ic'y stuff –
like geometr'ic's, astronom'ic's,
phys'ic's... (Had enough...?)
"Yer era's just yer E.R.A.,"*
opines the baseball buff.
* In baseball, the average number
of runs given up by a pitcher – his
so-called earned run average –
is not a measure of time at all.
A Friedman marks six moons have pass'd;
a fortnight, fourteen suns.
A February…? Eight plus twenty
('cept in leap year) runs.
A time frame's fluid: Brubeck (Dave)
took five and raked in tons.
(A femtosecond's fa-a-ar too short:
your time buff femtos shuns.)
How long's a generation…?
Whom you quiz may well prove weighty.
Galactic years…? Since time began,
far fewer've flown than eighty.*
A gigasecond lasts one second –
times one billion, matey!
(Gestations and Gregori'n years…?
Nowt…when you hail from Haiti.)
* About 61 since the Big Bang,
to orbit the center of the Milky Way
(which is the length of a galactic
year) measures about 225 million
earth years.
A moment lasts a minute and a half.
Thus, half a mo
should, as a rule, last merely
five and forty seconds. Go!
(Some sev’ral heartbeats –
seventy plus two – each minute fill.
There may beat more -- or way, way less –
if one falls gravely ill.)
A hectosecond takes a hundred seconds,
more or less.
How many in an hour…?
Hey! You do the math. (Or guess.)
An instant takes no time at all.
Indictions…? Fifteen years.
An instant’s just a snapshot of
right now -- in, say, Algiers.
(A verse which blends ‘em both…?
Perhaps a limerick of Lear’s...?)
A jiffy measures time elaps’d
as light migrates one fermi.
(A fermi’s never read of
in most tomes on taxidermy.)
A jubilee is fifteen years.
(Who so explains that term…? Me!)
What's 4.32 billion years...?
A kalpa. (Hey! Who knew...?)
What’s ten plus four and four/tenths
minutes long…? That answer’s ke.
A ke’s Chinese. It’s sound approximates
the Frenchman’s ‘bleu.’
A kilosecond’s three halves of a ke…
so there: adieu!
Lents last forty days. For fasting folks
Olympiads run four years long.
A while might last a watch or two.
those pose a strife time.
For lunar months, slice one half day
off thirty! Posed...? A knife time!
A lustrum lasts five years.
When you’re in jail, such seems a lifetime.
The bachelor (unless confirm’d)
spends, in the long run, wife time.
A month o’ Sundays…? Thirty weeks.
(In tetes-a-tetes, much greater.)
A moment lasts one minute and a half –
nor one tick later.
('M's teem. But, in the meantime...
see ya later, alligator!)
The time twixt light's turn green
and cab horn's honk…? A New York second.
How long's the night depends on
where on earth good souls begin it.
(A billionth of a second…?
That’s a nanosecond, i’n’it…?)
The time 'twixt your snafu and your
"Oh, no!"...? An onosecond.
(The nature of your fuck up or faux pas
can go unreckon'd.)
Planck time runs way, wa-a-a-ay shorter.
A length of time of three months
is a span they call a quarter.
Res satti has to do with
Lamb’s tail’s shakes may fluctuate,
as may each sev’ral season.
Semesters, too, may vary:
you might ask your school the reason.
If scenes run long, play fans cry, “Wrong!”
(The sin…? Theatric treason.)
A Scaramucci's ten days long,
post which he's Drumpf displeasin.'
A Tatum* is the time ‘twixt tones
in Art’s descending scale.
(A trice is also very short:
it ain’t no “pace de snail.”)
A "take two" starts once "take one" parts,
once "take one"’s deem’d “No sale!”
* Named for jazz great Art Tatum and
that pianist's lightning arpeggios.
The Upper Pal’olithic Age
lasts 30,000 years.
A vamp 'til ready lasts
until the buzzing in one’s ears --
along with fear of failure,
nosebleed and amnesia -- disappears.
A while might last a week.
An (e)xasecond’s
1,000,000,000,000,000,000* seconds – so to speak.
* Pronounced "one quintillion.
Yoctoseconds…? Zeptoseconds…?
They to me be Greek.
Exhausted I'm, so ends my rhyme.
(Just time to take a leak.)
Not Advents: four weeks, tops.
An afternoon can drag on days –
as third acts can, when flops.
An attosecond…? Light takes time
to make those two short hops!*
* An attosecond measures the
time light takes to travel the width
of two hydrogen atoms, about one
quintillionth of a second.
Blips are brief. And as for beats…?
But fractions of a bar.
Some thirty minutes, bells at sea.
(In class, bells fifty are.*)
Biennia engage two years,
then bid one, "Au revoir."
* Back in the day, the length of
a typical high-school algebra class in
minutes (though feeling far longer
to some observers).
The time a candle takes to burn
runs several hundred hours.
A century…? Eight hundred
thousand hours – and more -- devours.
(The first depends on how one takes
account of candlepowers.)
One’s life spins seven decades out –
in years, that's three score ten
(assuming decades ten years span):
so scrawls the Psalmist's pen.
(A day...? In hours, twenty-four:
so chimes Old Smoke’s* Big Ben.)
* A nickname originally
bestowed on London due to its smog.
The moniker’s persisted.
An epoch's length's determin’d
by a slew of 'ic'y stuff –
like geometr'ic's, astronom'ic's,
phys'ic's... (Had enough...?)
"Yer era's just yer E.R.A.,"*
opines the baseball buff.
* In baseball, the average number
of runs given up by a pitcher – his
so-called earned run average –
is not a measure of time at all.
A Friedman marks six moons have pass'd;
a fortnight, fourteen suns.
A February…? Eight plus twenty
('cept in leap year) runs.
A time frame's fluid: Brubeck (Dave)
took five and raked in tons.
(A femtosecond's fa-a-ar too short:
your time buff femtos shuns.)
How long's a generation…?
Whom you quiz may well prove weighty.
Galactic years…? Since time began,
far fewer've flown than eighty.*
A gigasecond lasts one second –
times one billion, matey!
(Gestations and Gregori'n years…?
Nowt…when you hail from Haiti.)
* About 61 since the Big Bang,
to orbit the center of the Milky Way
(which is the length of a galactic
year) measures about 225 million
earth years.
A moment lasts a minute and a half.
Thus, half a mo
should, as a rule, last merely
five and forty seconds. Go!
(Some sev’ral heartbeats –
seventy plus two – each minute fill.
There may beat more -- or way, way less –
if one falls gravely ill.)
A hectosecond takes a hundred seconds,
more or less.
How many in an hour…?
Hey! You do the math. (Or guess.)
An instant takes no time at all.
Indictions…? Fifteen years.
An instant’s just a snapshot of
right now -- in, say, Algiers.
(A verse which blends ‘em both…?
Perhaps a limerick of Lear’s...?)
A jiffy measures time elaps’d
as light migrates one fermi.
(A fermi’s never read of
in most tomes on taxidermy.)
A jubilee is fifteen years.
(Who so explains that term…? Me!)
What's 4.32 billion years...?
A kalpa. (Hey! Who knew...?)
What’s ten plus four and four/tenths
minutes long…? That answer’s ke.
A ke’s Chinese. It’s sound approximates
the Frenchman’s ‘bleu.’
A kilosecond’s three halves of a ke…
so there: adieu!
Lents last forty days. For fasting folks
Olympiads run four years long.
A while might last a watch or two.
those pose a strife time.
For lunar months, slice one half day
off thirty! Posed...? A knife time!
A lustrum lasts five years.
When you’re in jail, such seems a lifetime.
The bachelor (unless confirm’d)
spends, in the long run, wife time.
A month o’ Sundays…? Thirty weeks.
(In tetes-a-tetes, much greater.)
A moment lasts one minute and a half –
nor one tick later.
('M's teem. But, in the meantime...
see ya later, alligator!)
The time twixt light's turn green
and cab horn's honk…? A New York second.
How long's the night depends on
where on earth good souls begin it.
(A billionth of a second…?
That’s a nanosecond, i’n’it…?)
The time 'twixt your snafu and your
"Oh, no!"...? An onosecond.
(The nature of your fuck up or faux pas
can go unreckon'd.)
Planck time runs way, wa-a-a-ay shorter.
A length of time of three months
is a span they call a quarter.
Res satti has to do with
Lamb’s tail’s shakes may fluctuate,
as may each sev’ral season.
Semesters, too, may vary:
you might ask your school the reason.
If scenes run long, play fans cry, “Wrong!”
(The sin…? Theatric treason.)
A Scaramucci's ten days long,
post which he's Drumpf displeasin.'
A Tatum* is the time ‘twixt tones
in Art’s descending scale.
(A trice is also very short:
it ain’t no “pace de snail.”)
A "take two" starts once "take one" parts,
once "take one"’s deem’d “No sale!”
* Named for jazz great Art Tatum and
that pianist's lightning arpeggios.
The Upper Pal’olithic Age
lasts 30,000 years.
A vamp 'til ready lasts
until the buzzing in one’s ears --
along with fear of failure,
nosebleed and amnesia -- disappears.
A while might last a week.
An (e)xasecond’s
1,000,000,000,000,000,000* seconds – so to speak.
* Pronounced "one quintillion.
Yoctoseconds…? Zeptoseconds…?
They to me be Greek.
Exhausted I'm, so ends my rhyme.
(Just time to take a leak.)
