What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than trees,
Up, up it goes,
And yet never grows?

Voiceless it cries,
Wingless flutters,
Toothless bites,
Mouthless mutters.

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes out first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughte ...

Alive without breath,
As cold as death;
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail never clinking.

This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down.

A pallid visage in plain sight revealed by its foe.

It does not fast, it does not feast, and yet does shrink and grow.

Much grander and yet more minute than those it stands beside.

Unendingly ...

I'm left behind yet never taken, set down in a row.

Seldom seen in isolation, captured by the snow.

Set apart by haste, though immobile all the same.

When left un-defaced, a betrayal of the g ...