Such were the years, a dumb stuffed thing
to say, if truth is we all grow old un-
observed, limbs flail only halfway up
a flight, where does dark begin settling
my little bones. I dream and do love
to have them, blue fish
in a lake, my head more tipped up than down
under damp earth. Some days others like deer
from the shot, peeled back, how nuisance I
find trees dressed in wild
green light. The years come, unstitched
a face, saddled as one would a heavy beast
for walking, likely I became then a member
of heaven, put up, the years come and reaching
their long wet hands.

-Wendy Xu, Guernica

Tagged: a dumb stuffed thing, contemporary poetry, Guernica, Guernica mag, poetry, such were the years, The Years poem, time, Wendy Xu, Wendy Xu poem, Wendy Xu the years