Some dates must be captured—

too aesthetically pleasant to allow

to float on by on the streams of time

that wander toward history

and so this is what to do—

immortalize them!

(Spenser did it;

so can you.)

Set an ambush in the river,

spread the net out wide

and catch those numbers

before they fall off the mountainside.

Then write a little something

shaped (at least) like a poem

and tack the date

right on top.

And there it sits,

a fragment of forever.