Devious as Leaves

But no more, proud as you are
Of your overt cleverness,
Primate. You are smart, silly,

Half-assed, half ass. You are wise
And solemn as the birch leaves
In a brief, mountain summer,

Executing strategies
Honed by ancestral epochs
They weren’t part of, didn’t see.

Since your past’s as much longer
Than your imagined future
As comet’s tail to bow wave,

Why not imagine facing
That way? These leaves, gone in spring,
Never anticipated.