_ _ Where wind and water have worked the mortar loose
_ _ a gillyflower grows out from the wall,
_ _ white-petalled sun of a barnyard solar system:
_     _ spider-comets arcing beneath the crossties,
_     _ midges filtering an azure sky,
a roof, like heaven’s dome, all set to fall.

_ _ The nervous clouds give away the air.
_ _ The birds decline as if in gratitude.
_ _ What holds the upright tree against the wind?
_     _ Easy skate down the sidewalk of the modern mind,
_     _ all contradictions melt, the old kinds
of lovers become unisex, and the queen, nude.

_ _ Ox tongue, cowslip, purslane—Latin weeds
_ _ make salads of Old English words. What stays?
_ _ The earth rumbles and rotates all night long
_     _ beneath the animals in the country stars.
_     _ The great wind that sweeps the universe
combles the shards of bare rural days.