The New Experience

I was ready for a new experience. All the old ones had burned out. They lay in little ashy heaps along the roadside And blew in drifts across the fairgrounds and fields. From a distance some appeared to be smoldering But when I approached with my hat in my hands They let out small puffs of smoke and expired. Through the windows of houses I saw lives lit up With the otherworldly glow of TV And these were smoking a little bit too. I flew to Rome. I flew to Greece. I sat on a rock in the shade of the Acropolis And conjured dusky columns in the clouds. I watched waves lap the crumbling coast. I heard wind strip the woods. I saw the last living snow leopard Pacing in the dirt. Experience taught me That nothing worth doing is worth doing For the sake of experience alone. I bit into an apple that tasted sweetly of time. The sun came out. It was the old sun With only a few billion years left to shine.