Busy…

(Note to the Reader: Poem to be read in an increasingly

rapid word speed.)

“I’m sooo busy,” she said.

“I’ve really been terribly, terribly busy.”

“You ha-ave?” remarked her friend,

“Why, what a coincidence,

I’ve been busy, too. I’ve been very busy.

Why I’ve been extremely, extraordinarily busy.”

“You’ve been busy,” said a third party,

who was simply eavesdropping on the street.

“You think you’ve been busy, let me

tell you what busy is. I’m busy.

I am a very busy person.

I have been sooo busy. Why, this year,

I have been busier than I have been

all other years put together.

Just in the first few months, barely.

You can’t imagine how frightening it is,

not to be able to have time

to get down to the Discount

App Store. I mean, that’s how

very busy I’ve been!”

“Oh, yeah?” said her friend, “Well,

I have been too busy to have my

smart phone respond to your insulting tweets.”

“Oh, yeah?” retorted the very first to speak, “Well, let me tell you this — I have been too

busy–even to take lunch. I get my meals through an intravenous hook-up. Next to my

desk. Where I work. At Tik-Tok.”

“Oh, yeah? Meanwhile, I been doing

a hundred-and-twenty miles an hour

on the Poetry Superhighway.

Catch me if you can, Copper!”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Oh, yeah?? Well let me tell you

how busy I’ve been. I have been

frighteningly, astoundingly, shockingly

busy with my very busy

frightening, shocking and astounding schedule!

There isn’t one tiny piece of light

that can shine through any crack

in my schedule. Because I am just…I’ve, I’ve g…

I’m quintuple-booked is how busy I am.

That’s how very, very busy I am.”

“Because I’m, I’m such busy person,

I’ve just been really, really busy.

I’ve been, I’ve been busier than you can imagine.”

“No one knows how busy I’ve been.

I’ve been busier than the speed of light.

I’ve been really, really busy.”

“I mean I’m busy. I, I’m so busy.

I’m, I’m…Wait!… I don’t know, I dunno how to,

how to explain how busy I am…

I’m really, really busy, I’m very busy.

It’s….wait, no, HELP! No, WAIT! I’m

too busy, I’m too busy. I’ve been very busy.

I’m a very busy, busy person! Busy, busy, busy!

don’t you understand? I mean busy when I say busy!

I’m not kidding, I’m serious. I mean busy! Really

busy, busy, busy!”

“Wait! Oh, Stop! Oh, Help!

Somebody help me. Somebody.

Somebody stop me. Stop me.

Someone stop me before I do

one more thing!”

—Linda J. Albertano