a fallen leaf

a name for what we do not care to know
assumes that namers have some sort of right
to paste their useful labels day or night
on those who come and those who have to go
to places where time does not move as slow
as it does here beneath the noonday light
who does not give has never to requite
the ones who are not drawn out by the flow
of rivers we know nothing more than you
but have to make some sense of every word
change comes we're told it comes without a pause
the old with spit and polish becomes new
bright fish becomes a funny sort of bird
and justice is the sum of many laws