From the Verse Essays of Ivar Benløs: The World Is Small Because I Am

How far can anyone go
Who needs to be carried there?
It's an important question
To me and to Franklin D.
Roosevelt, who pretended
He was halting not helpless
As, halting and helpless, he

Gathered together his power
And advanced hegemony
Jauntily. There's no free world
Apart from his four freedoms
Now, is there? Your head explodes
With these possibilities.
Time's no respecter of men,

Nor men respecters of time.
Gendered denouncements aside,
Everyone here's a specter.
And then, the wind in the trees,
Which happen to be blooming
Dogwoods, judas, cottonwoods,
Tamarisk, Russian olive,

Sagebrush, greasewood, cherry trees,
And assorted invaders,
Impostors, and mysteries
Around colonial parts
Such as these, whispers in words
Borrowed from longship Vikings,
"What's culture without a shield?