"The Far Norway Maples."
"Silver poplars rise and thin to the very twig,
but what thins at your fingertips?
The aspirations of a minute, a day, a year?
Yellow tangs veer in the water and, catching sunlight,
veer again, disappear from sight.
The unfolding of a life has junctures that rupture plot--
a child folds paper and glues toothpicks,
designs a split-level house with white walls and pitched roof,
but his father snatches the maquette and burns it.
If you inhale and spore this moment, it tumors your body,
but if you exhale it, you dissolve midnight and noon--
sunlight tilts and leafs the tips of the far Norway maples."