Once

To reference an event
you must use coordinates in both space and time
But how do we measure “now”?
If I change your clock, is it tomorrow?
Should constellations shift—following standard expectations—no years have passed.
Were our universe stopping
.
.
.
then restarting,
over millennia or eye-blinks,
would that be noticed?

A stateful world can manifest as functions on objects, plus “t”
“At 1:00 today, he was eating lunch”
What tells us “when”?
My watch?
Some…sundial?
Star positions?

The current configuration of each atom, everywhere
This encodes “present”.

For all things happen only once, from single start.
Within existence, chronology merely one emergent part.

Sort of stretching the definition of “poetry”, but whatever. The rhyming couplet at the end makes up for it. This is a quick, stripped-down glimpse of my understanding of timeless physics, which seems very interesting and makes a lot of sense in several different ways. I have no idea if the theory has gone anywhere, though.

Also, do you see what I did there?

Part of Poem-a-day 2012. Title donated by Patrick S.