no matter how fast

the bullet train is

from Tokyo to Hokkaido

it will never reach

the speeds it once had

when the universe was new

nor the speeds

it one day will;

and the passengers

watching the quiet towns race past

on a warm night in Japan

know nothing of

where they have been

and where they are going

forever past and future

when every blade of grass

and every silk worm

and the kimonos of their work

took cosmic flight

nigh near as fast and bright as light.