The arc is slow,
but grand-sweeping

The message is baked into sandstone

and revealed,
in a crumbly spine –

at the

top
of a ridge

that leaks,

drop

by
drop

ancient
river rocks

each an ellipse

disc-ed, rounded, and smoothed:

“Get over your impermanence!”

It’s been
a
long trip

and it’s a
fair piece
back

down to the river

The thought of time is only torture

for the thinker

There is

comfort

in the fearlessness of these

brave stones,

whose fate is to

disintegrate

and be

spread throughout the oceans –

only to be engulfed by

a dying sun,

only to be ripped through

a black hole,

only to be brought back home

by the big inhale –

of everything that can
and can’t be known.

Don’t worry:

Even if we don’t come

back

this

go around,

there’ll be another

exhale again.

What’s it matter

how long it takes?

What should we care

how long it was

or has been?…

…since we closed our eyes

until we opened them again?