Early accounts of cedars
lining lower reaches
of the Cedar estimate circumferences
of one hundred feet. The wood
is gone; the blade misremembered.
Who swings the axe to crack
wafers of such godly size?
First blows hew deep
fissures of erasure while the last
have yet to land.
Beg a timepiece
to pin down an analog
for the word early. Forgiveness
is to decision as a living tree is to decision
as mortality is to a good watch:
heavy in pocket, solid in hand.