So this is what happened before I was there to see
they were walking over the bare stone carrying
their shoes because it was going to be a long way
their day was ringing the barrens in a loud wind
and they were taking their seasons with them as animals
through the beating light urging on the sheep of autumn
the pigs of winter the lambs of spring the cows of summer
all heading the same way along the rough walls of the lanes
so old that they had no beginnings and no memory
their voices and the sounds of their feet flew up from them like
flocks of finches and blew away with all the names that they
knew for themselves and were continually saying
and all the words that were what they had then and were what they
were saying to each other as they went along and as they
greeted each other when they met where the lanes came
together and when they told where they were going
The Time Before
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