And at this place
Flocks of jackdaws
Like a plague
Telling us messages
Over and over
Like the waves
"You can't win
You will get old
Die like everyone else"
These wise birds
Live everywhere here
Like people
The town and
The bare rocky valleys
Like gorges, dead lakes
Where the river fell out
It dried
Piled like rock
Ruins and legends
All false, impossible
Like we knew
What the birds tell us
Eyes black beads in white
Like automata
Or like some
Wisdom burst out
A dreadful warning
Black bodies flying
Into night, sky
And sea