speaking of little things

Let us not speak of a now
That becomes then
Before the breath on which it rested
Escapes these crafty lips.

Let us not speak of a then
That becomes now
Without so much
As a by-your-leave.

Let us speak rather
Of things little and large --
A rat hair in the Rice Krispies,
The candle wax on a glass-smoothed table cloth,
A middling key among the eighty-eight,
The expedition that did not fall to its death on Everest,
A snowshoed trail across the whitened wasteland.

Let us speak warmly of little things
As the sun sets gently
In the now and then.