Changes

Witter Bynner

Changes of light are living things
And flit along the brook;
On a willow-limb their images
Are wounded wings of smoke.

Two ways of life make the design,
Two behaviours:
The brook's way with the sun is mine;
The willow's way is yours.

You are a reaching, rooted span
Where little leaves grow:
You are a woman; but I am a man
And catch the sun and go.

University of Virginia Virginia Quarterly Review
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University of Virginia
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ISSN 2154-6932