~~Universal Time Co-ordinated: June 30th, 2015

What will you do with your leap-second?
The precious one second adjustment
added to the final minute of this day.
The important second that holds back
earth’s drift from atomic time;
making up for the irregularities of the earth’s rotation.
The second that keeps us precise.

So, what will you do?

You could accrue the second, keep it in an account
with other leap-seconds, the ones saved from previous
years of tiny additions.

You could quickly kiss a lover, child, parent, friend,
pat a dog, cat or other household pet;
blink an eye, or both, or none.

You could purse your lips ready to whistle in
the ‘first of July’,
or decide to count sheep as you’re still awake;
or roll over in bed, counting sheep was a bad idea.

You could wiggle all your toes simultaneously
while ignoring the cracking of the joints,
or you could transfer your second to morning;
add it to the lie-in, if you have one, or

you might choose to smile at the first person you meet,
even if it is the grumpy-guts from down the road, after all
it hasn’t cost you anything; you banked this second’s grace.

Or you might choose to waste your second,
flippantly waving it aside in an almost instant, and
no one would notice or know; and time will be correct,
almost un-interfered with. Correct to atomic time.