THE LITTLE GIRL BY THE FENCE AT SCHOOL
Grass that was moving found all shades of brown,
moved them along, flowed autumn away
galloping southward where summer had gone.
And that was the morning someone’s heart stopped
and all became still. A girl said, “Forever?”
And the grass. “Yes. Forever.” While the sky —
The sky — the sky — the sky.
—from William Stafford’s The Way It Is, Graywolf Press (1999)