If life is a year, then this is
November, just about the day
I'm thinking it'll never get cold
and it gets cold; if life is a day,
then now is the darkening, serious
but not quite deep enough to sleep in;
if life is an hour, then I'm near the end
of a story I might or might not
finish in an hour. But life is a minute,
and suddenly looking up
from the page, who can tell
whether it's the middle or end
or beginning of a minute?

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Note: “Momentum” first appeared in Harvard Review. “When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang....” is reprinted from For Now (Copper Canyon Press, 2020) and “Again,” “Essay on Clouds,” “Theory of Everything,” “Fire Warnings,” and “Sentence” are reprinted from During (Copper Canyon Press, 2016)