[Poem] Imperious

In the end, I'm a minor beginning
Of a love for small empires.

Tiny kingdoms who don't
Outwear their welcome.

Short reigns, minor abuses,
Powers and scandals that

Don't tip the earth off her axis.

The kind only daffodils
And mayflies seem to master

Before becoming one again
With wet stone, hoary space

That a single atom (with some luck)
Can convert into an entire new galaxy

Who won't remember us, like a callow child
Playing in the bluegrass before the rain.

From On the Other Side of the Eye, 2007