David
Me on Birthdays
for John
The moment is now,
The time is past,
The seconds are to sow,
And so the record grows.
Days meet days,
As casually as you please,
Today I tied my shoes first time,
Then found me a mountain to climb.
O run along my little dog,
And catch that trundling van,
For I have forgotten my shoes,
And have gotten rather wan.
And where are those Titans
That bestrode the Earth,
Do I brush them on the street,
Do they wear ties, have sneakered feet.
O I have forgotten too much,
And recall is all I do,
Today I added 1 to 1,
Then calculated the Sun.
O we plow on,
And we will plow the seas,
And leave those shores,
And find those shores again,
And from time we cower not at all,
As we stand we'll fall,
But falling from a height,
We'll stand to the wind, take flight.
Universit"ats-Sternwarte M"unchen
Munich, Germany
1989 February 19