Here there was once a country

fire withdrew from women's fingers

bread deserted the ploughed furrows

and the cold devoured all children who wore daffodils on their shoulders

​

Here there was once a wall

which reproduced itself in prosperous times

became rectangle square but never circle

so as not to humiliate the fountains

which held the rights to day's roundness

​

Here there was once a hunter

who knocked down his house to go into the forest

and verify that his shots pierced the eardrums of the rocks

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Here there was once a pebble

which turned into a gravestone at the mere sight of a passer-by

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Here there was once an infinitely white night

an infinitely black tree

which pulled its bark up to its chin

when noon lengthened shadows down to the ravine

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Here there was once an echo of another echo

and the horns of great cattle which melted when even a wing passed overhead