Seven Wonders of the World

First is language: the naked letter speaking:

By sign and search, by sure and dowsing stick,

By jest and judgment, law and prick of thumb,

By wit and woe, by lore and testament

Miraculous as flowering twigs or sea things

Whose skeletons resist their dissolution.

Second is truth, the ranger in the western,

The universal devil hunter slow

On the trigger, and riding hell bent for leather

On to the end of the world and the well of life.

Meanwhile, the desperadoes lift the gates

And rustle the lovely cattle of the sun.

Third is time, always looking for a lively

Piece of business, the stand-up comic used

To bankrupt audiences who can't remember.

An addled tinker patching up old maxims:

A beast of many faces, screaming, astonished

With every turning when it bites its tail.

The fourth is patience: it is lean and loves

All weather: laughs at juju veins; and sends

Them whirlwinds who on little twigs of their

Distractions alternately burn and smoulder.

Though earth should freeze, it will congeal the seed

Of four leaf clovers, and our luck will hold.

The fifth is rhythm: like green grapes taking light:

The curve of breaking day, or nudge of night;

In pure white light of fact, the peacock dream

Invites the musical invader and offers

A conventicle to celebrate a triumph

In the center of the center of the center.

The sixth is memory: the tatooed number:

IfI forget thee, let them slay me daily:

We shall conserve our tears for what deserves them:

Being frail, we praise valor; being stubborn

We take the tragic view, while throwing salt

Over the shoulder, and love what we must lose.

The seventh is the horse's mouth: to know

Though love has promised us a billion years,

The shudder is creeping closer and no one listens,

Except the fox who waits for Chicken Little

To spread the wild news that a piece of sky

Fell on her tail, the end of sun and moon.