Packet of Time

T'is the custom of some,
To do their self-sums,
Periodically,
A self-review of
What is seen
When standing before the
Mirror that cannot lie.

Some like Xmas, while others
Count their turkey feathers
on January first.
Others numerical ***** on
The fifteenth of April,
As required by the IRS.

Others habit bound,
Do a spring cleaning,
Or an annualized medical checkup.

Then there are the enviable few,
Who never do
Such an exercise,
For being sure of one's rightness
Precludes the necessity of having their
**** probed, their status, already known.

As I lie in bed at four am,
Waking  after a four hour packet of rest,
Began to wonder, what is the proper period
That a person should time themselves out,
Take a look back, do a "get back Jack,"
To find where they not once belonged,
But where they should set the course heading.

Here is where
This poem gets
Deadly
Serious.

One minute please!

One on, one off.
Did you just spend the minute prior,
Setting your brain on fire,
Scrub away the false pretenses,
Or waste 60 of them on mindless telly?

Day dream, plan and scheme,
Outline the plan, man,
Or curse your fate
The one you, Nate,
Created.

Seems quite expensive,
Spending half a life
Thinking how to
Spend the other half.

But a **** worthwhile,
Notion,
likely to reduce
Self- promotion.

For after but a few such minutes,
You will likely conclude,
Better to think of others,
Than yourself.

Then you truly begin,
The voyage human.