Fastness

The cat’s too quick
For the helpless mouse,
The hawk for the
Hapless hare.
Predators rely
On speed to get
The lion’s share.
But hare and mouse
Are speedy too,
Though seldom
Kill the cat
Or give the hawk
High blood pressure,
A stroke, or heart attack.
But our fast food
Can bite us back.
When in haste
We feed our face,
Speed sows a
Grizzle on our case.
This haste makes waist.
The need for speed
Is a foolish greed,
Rapidity stupidity.
Slick poets save time
By skipping the rhyme,
But the poetry’s worse
With the curse of free verse.
Jet-speed vacations
Give travelers a lift,
And Gulliver’s Travels
Made Jonathan Swift.
But there’s no hilarity
In so much celerity.
For mere dispatch,
We claw and scratch
And spur and spur
Till life’s a blur
And run and gun
And miss the fun
And before we know it,
The race is done.
In a world so fleet,
Life’s incomplete.
So get a grip
If you’re on a clip.
Grab a chair
If you’re on a tear.
If you hasten, chasten,
If lively, deaden
And get the lead in.
Speed as you might
At the speed of light,
In space-time so vast,
You’re only half fast.
I can’t keep pace
With the human race.
I covet a covert,
A stop, an oasis,
A harbor, a quiet,
A stillness, a stasis.
In all this velocity,
Space-time, and vastness,
You, dear...
Yes, you......
Are my one only
Fastness.