IMMORTALITY
When I was grass, perhaps I may have wept
As every year the grass blades paled and slept
Or shrieked in anguish impotent beneath
The smooth impartial cropping of great teeth—
I don’t remember much what came to pass
When I was grass.
When I was monkey, I’m afraid the trees
Weren’t always havens of contented ease;
Things killed us and we never could tell why;