Firelight Piece

Now height turns into length

Upon the firelit floor,

And where is the pride of strength

That stretched the scrimmage score?

The speed that sprinted at track

Is slackening the wire,

And only the eyes give back

The leap and flash of fire.

Where, as the fingers tense

To turn the innocent page,

Is the schoolroom impudence

That scrawled a beard on the sage?

Now heroes shake the land

Beneath a seven-league tread,

And fathers understand

What long ago they read.

And the rocket motor runs

Where fireshine shakes the wall

And women stare at sons

Grown long instead of tall.