.
The grain in the wood
Is a map; a history
of sun and rain
of wind and strain.
.
These markings are mysterious; inscrutable
But unmistakably a language; a record
Lines and spaces, colors and curves
That mark seasons and events.
.
Is there some interpreter,
a singer, perhaps
Who speaks in this unknown tongue?
.
This board on this wall
Once a chestnut tree
How long ago felled?
And how many years before
Did it stand on some mountainside
Who knows where
What do these lines say about a summer
A century ago
And the falling of rain
Before the great war.
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