Looking back to an old poem -- "Expectations"

      Years ago I wrote this poem -- recently I have rediscovered it and, once again, pondered the role of time in my life.  Here, from the 1980's is "Expectations" -- a poem that appears in my collection, Intersections (Kadet Press, 1993).

     Expectations     by JoAnne Growney

          Don't let mathematics
          teach you to expect two
          to be more than one.

          It's sad but true that two
          can get too near,
          can interfere,
          can reduce each other
          to less than one,
          to less than half.    

          Don't let mathematics
          teach you to expect one
          to be the sum of its parts.

          One hour is time enough
          to read the paper
          or eat lunch,
          but sixty minutes
          are sixty times too short
          for anything but frustration.

And, as I anticipate an upcoming birthday celebration with family, I add this link to an earlier posting of another oldish poem, "You asked me for a birthday gift suggestion."