A Long-spirited Dwarf

How swiftly you age, my body
a season passes with each bend
above, birds freed, endless sky
the tree a human resembles, branches dry, days long gone
crawl, my trunk, crawl—love is a fleeting away
a borrowed white on hair’s sway

life gave me words crushed in mouth
I whispered to the ears I found
the skin of man is mortal, height a long-spirited dwarf,
war the wheel’s invention, the rifle a later task,
and tyranny is expecting too much from a heart

evenings are man’s weary sibling,
half in darkness, half sky