BERGSON’S DURATION ❋ Annabel Banks

Conscious time is measurable
by thought lengths, fantasy as feeler gauge.
He knows this so has spent weeks
in your short goodbye

making room for admonishment
some unkind sentiment
the sweetness of l’esprit d’escalier
and fuller lies of putting you away

for good and yet keeps looping back
to how the weight of your hand on his thigh
is just a construct, built to figure how
despite the trained and tightened spring

your movement swept you on
too fast to compensate
for the failed synchronicity
of unstoppable hands.