Without End

 
It takes a sloth
thirty days to digest
a single leaf; a week
before it descends 

from its upside-down 
perch in the trees to take 
a dump. The zoologist 
on public radio says, 
sex is the one thing 
they do swiftly. 

We like 
to think the point
delivered by time is either
benevolence or cruelty.

Many wars have taken 
forever to end; 
and yet, even after 
the end, there is 
a longer aftermath.