and what, defines us.
A universe to quantify,
two cups to a pint,
two pints a quart,
four quarts a gallon.
Fetal age is weeks,
lifespan decades,
while kids race months to years.
Track’s run in fifty-meter increments,
till one endures the hundreds.
Vehicle speed, kilometers per hour.
Our national past time,
success − three hits in ten at bats.
Presidents measured by the first hundred days,
bills passed or curving just out of reach —
a rubber ball eluding the street kid’s mitt,
spinning downhill and shrinking,
like so many ambitions.
