Geology of Awareness

David Epstein

When sudden saw I cloud from far away,

I knew that all of history it saw,

although it misted up and blew apart,

all of time, that within its heart had stayed,

and briefly been aware, where the her-

on wades, striding twice in the river heart,

oh loss: oh late and sudden rains and flood,

the heart-broke and the lovers lately laid,

come watch with me the cloud that on the blue

expanselessness arrayed itself, then left.

Time itself is theft, is pocket-picked through

the hole in its bottom seam. Treasure lift-

ed thus accrues to timelessness, the place

to which, without aspire, every hour hefts

itself, then goes, a cloud, without a trace.