The Elephant Years
Remember
when we were small
and the years
were elephants
huge and cumbersome
plodding ponderously past
filling our world
with sight, and smell, and sound,
and stretching our moments
to their limits
giving us room
to explore each new experience
and time
to savor every strange excitement?
But wild, impatient youth
did not want elephants –
it longed instead
to ride the wild gazelle
and race the wind …
… and now
we are no longer small
and the years
are dragonflies
flitting silently –
and often unnoticed –
from our grasp:
darting by
before we have time
to know them.
Changing
changing
and gone
even as we watch.
And sometimes
in the wing-beat of a moment
I look back
and wish
that once again
the years
were elephants.
