Time Is Too Much With Us
By Mick Minard
Urging A Tree To Stand
Never have I asked myself
to help a tree to stand
But this day asked of me
a solemn promise to this land
For everything there is a season,
or so it has been said
And the Earth as Timeʼs keeper,
turns the Fall leaves red
When summer slips away
and welcomes early night
The forest gifts its leaves
so its limbs become light
When this cycle’s interrupted,
trees are force to hold
The weight of early Winter
on each leaf green and gold
Standing still to make sense
of the sound and sight of snow
I found my dearest friends
with their greatest limbs hanging low
As their summer boughs sounded
with first a creak and then a crack
I swiftly took their hands and
waved their arms to urge them back
When they were mostly freed
of both frost and flake
Each tree sent me flying
for my own heavenʼs sake
How to Measure What Matters
To circle the Earth
and unwind time,
as Superman once did,
would require only
a hidden place
to attach my cape,
stow my glasses.
But when I got up there,
how would I know
which way to fly
to bring back
what I think I lost?
In space,
what is counter clockwise?
Amongst the stars,
what is measured
in minutes,
in moments?
At the Friendship Bridge
Tides so strong
You would think
the locals were wrong
for building a friendship bridge
Mother Earth is not a tease
when it comes to matters of war
I cannot rest here
in a state of ease
when I am reminded of the gore
All I could think,
as my heart began to fold and kink
Is blood, when dead,
thickens, dries, and flakes
And water flows forever,
and what a difference that makes.