May 6, 2009 0
Guardians
By Nancy Wahl
1.
Time was large once, roomy
parabolas around long, slow days
that wound through corridors between
anticipations. You could scream
at the top of your lungs allee allee oxen free
with your friends throwing brown rubber balls
over rooftops, or sit for hours on green lawns
building miniature cairns out of colored bits of glass,
arranging them in orbits like stars.
Pick bunchy little dandelions
and wonder why, always why, the yellow
was magic. Birthdays, Christmases, and summers
were all coordinates outside Cartesian spaces,
circled on predictable calendars.
2.
Because he’s younger than we, our guide
paces himself and motions us on
as the trail gets steeper, twisting into narrow turns
around glacier-polished rocks with shining
surfaces ...