There Used to Be

 

There used to be a woods so high and thick

that where I sit was high in a tree.

The water and islands I see would be

hidden by the Douglas Fir next to me.

 

Squirrels scurried around the

ground and hurried up the trees

for reasons unknown to me.

 

There was a time

when time was lost.

Can it be it’s not what

it’s purported to be?

 

A gigantic boulder rolled

here by a wave of ice

twelve thousand years ago

looks pretty much the same

as it did a hundred years ago.

 

Why do I think my life

is so important?

 

After all, this life is just a

snapshot in an old polaroid

that is faded to yellow.

 

I’m giving a lot more importance

to what I do than it really deserves.

 

And while the bigger me thinks of

changing and improving the world.

 

I should know who I really am.

An ant in a colony of ants that is moving sand

because that’s what I’m programmed to do.

 

Try as I will it’s hard to understand

that the grain of sand I shoulder around

is just what it is and the only thing

I can really change is me.