They Burn
Charles A. Gramlich
In the lives of stars,
thoughts are forever,
never in a hurry.
Time is constant luxury.
In the measure of planets
who only fear the sun,
life is a great waltz,
slow and majestic.
In the world of mountains,
movements are stately.
Emotions, cold as stone,
are nearly eternal.
In the era of oceans,
a decade is nothing.
The sediments of epochs
scribe a book no eyes can read.
In the age of forests,
time is a haze of mists,
of sunrises and sunsets
that follow their own equations.
But in the lives of humans,
years become minutes,
become seconds, become gone.
Oh, how they burn.
