THE OUT-YEARS

The out-years are being planned
By greasy noses—a wilderness of paper,
Words, mission-statements, and needless
Needs, and crying needful needs—
And their course is foreknown.

Why should anyone not embrace them?
They are their own best reason,
Their needs choose themselves
For the heads who fit around them
And their own best reasons.

If other years are shaping, then
Their reasons will be otherwise;
If they burst—like spring—upon
Our world, then everything will flower,
Old reasons left nowhere.