What does what it should do needs nothing more.
— Theodore Roethke
Let us remain then, let us stand in wait,
For the black dog that ambled towards
A palm tree and disappeared into the shadow
Of its trunk, or the shadow of a dog that ambled
By a palm tree and disappeared into its trunk.
Our breaths echo. The road is white and stark,
As if nobody had ever walked on it. All things are
Intolerably heavy, intolerably light, intolerably still.
Our tongues are dry. Our nostrils do not know this.
There will soon be fire all around. Nobody is coming.
Let us remain then, let us stand at the window,
For the bird that was flying towards us before
It was flying away from us. We did not know
Where it was headed, and then, in a beat,
It became one with the hills, their blackness.
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