tortoise

Heavy with years, laden with caution

And carapace, the tortoise moves across the land

Weighed with all the statistics of how long

It would take such a creature to walk

The average island from end to end—

Several years, no doubt.

Scientists measure the dauntingly long

In the years a beam of light

Would take to travel such a route;

Tortoise years would make those distances

Seem even greater, even less imaginable,

More like the reality of infinite time.