Sunlight is breaking into colors around me
like a catastrophe I can neither
shake nor explain–
how the sun’s gold finger
dusts the tops of maples.
How the maple’s articulate roots
wrestle with dumb earth.
How our houses, breaking free of foliage,
stare candidly at one another’s naked bodies.
Time washes all the bridges out, dismembers
the maples, expires like a parking meter.
We check and recheck our watches and
pay costly tickets anyway.
Yet look what a little thing can defeat time.
I made this from bits of salvage–
my own breath
and a few second-hand words.