Distraction

when I was a child I could sit for hours
staring at the trail of ants going this way and that

time did not go slower then, rather,
I was contracted to wonder and moving fancifully

as one ant passed another it paused
– it seemed as if it bowed out of respect for a king

I am no longer a child I have not sat for hours with any one thing
and my life is speeding away.

martin stewart 2016