In A Second Poem by gershon hepner

In a second cheetahs dash
a distance of so many yards
the animal can be as rash
as bad and bold blaspheming bards.
Signals from the telephone
can move about ten thousand miles,
more fast than any floozie’s flown
to catch up with new fashion styles.
A hummingbird can beat its wings
some seventy times within a second;
that’s faster than I’ve had my flings
when other floozies to me beckoned.
In a leap year they may add
a second to make sure that time
is right. The time is right, I’m glad,
to put these thoughts all into rhyme,
less fast than cheetahs dash or phones
can travel or a hummingbird
can flap its wings, but he who moans
about this fact is quite absurd.

Inspired by an article by Thomas Vinciguerra in the NYT, December 28,2008, discussing the second that will be added to the present leap year:
If you’re fretting that 2008 is about to end, and that another year has slipped by, don’t panic: you do have some extra time on your hands. one second, to be precise. On New Year’s Eve, the international authorities charged with keeping precise time will add a single second to our lives. It will be the 24th “leap second” since 1972, and the first since 2005. If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, consider that in one second a cheetah can dash 34 yards, a telephone signal can travel 100,000 miles, a hummingbird can beat its wings 70 times, and eight million of your blood cells can die. As the saying goes, every second counts. In the case of leap seconds, that is especially true.

12/28/08