Poetry of Issue #8        Page 51

Speed of Thought

Drops the nut with a swish
and crack to the slopes
of the small forest’s floor

follows in seconds
a squirrel’s scrabble
to the prize—before another

plummet to the muffled
decline and another pursuit
that beats even a ludicrous

thought to scramble over
the chain links and descend
to the hickory nut’s thunk

too slow the two-stepped
thinker to claim the toothy prize
that now goes to the one

fleet and furred, comfortable
in his own element, as skin,
anyhow, to use it better

than the clumsy ape who might
only imagine to have lightning limbs
and endless license to gather

given life under the leaves.

  John Zedolik