Future

You were downtown on a busy day,
Dodging traffic, scrutinizing
Opportunities and hubbub,

What was going on at the end
Of the street, evaluating
With an eye to efficiency,

Considering what would come next
And next after that, down the line,
All the calculations of time

Bustling along the horizon
Glimpsed in the gaps between events.
And then, a realization—

Your world would end in a few steps
And the rest would never happen.