Psalm by Wisława Szymborska
How leaky are the borders of man-made states!
How many clouds float over them scot-free,
how much desert sand sifts from country to country,
how many mountain pebbles roll onto foreign turf
in provocative leaps!
in provocative leaps!
Need I cite each and every bird as it flies,
or alights, as now, on the lowered gate?Even if it be a sparrow--its tail is abroad,
though its beak is still home. As if that weren't enough--it keeps fitgeting!
Out of countless insects I will single out the ant,
Who, between the guard's left and right boots,feels obliged to answer questions of origin and destination.
If only this whole mess could be seen at once in detail
on every continent!
Isn't that a privet on the opposite bank
smuggling its hundred-thousandth leaf across the river?
Who else but the squid, brazenly long-armed,
would violate the sacred territorial waters?
How can we speak of any semblance of order
when we can't rearrange the stars
to know which one shines for whom?
Not to mention the reprehensible spreading of fog!
Or the dusting of the steppe over its entire range
as though it weren't split in two!
Or voices carried over accommodating air waves:
summoning squeals and suggestive gurgles!
Only what's human can be truly alien.
The rest is mixed forest, undermining moles, and wind.
6 comments:
That looks super fun! Did you all sleep out there?
Wow. Think you could tone down the uber nationalistic poems on the 4th?! :)
Love you, B
God Save the Queen!
weird. i could have sworn there was a megara comment on this. megara, where are you!? i was going to answer your question, which was yes, "we" did camp (in the backyard) and by "we" i mean Bim and Ally. :-)
i would have, but i pulled a muscle in my shoulder and i need many, many floofy pallows to make it all right.
Most original celebration of the 4th I've seen posted this year and clearly starring the most darling celebrants ever.
Weird, I thought I commented on this post, too. I don't remember what I said, but I liked it. Maybe I closed the window instead of publishing. I've been known to do such things in my fully-awake but unconscious moments.
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