Now when we are cut down and lie still,
sky fallen out of us,
birds forever flown,
we remember when they came among us,
their grain like ours joining earth and sky,
water and sun their life . . .

But they walked the earth and never were at rest,
as if this sun was not enough,
this sky not blue,
this earth not rich or water cold enough –
and, walking, fell,
and when they fell, dark sap red as clay did cover earth and stone,
yet some who fell did rise again.
Truly the Titans of the earth were they,
and we trembled at their passing.

Now when Time is real and we lie among our fathers,
we remember a story
of a time when men and women came to us
in the green-gold light
and stood among us, still, in our green groves
and from their limbs put roots into the ground
to know what beings we were
and feel the ice-cold waters run,
this blue sky’s sun, this earth.
Birds’ nests in their hair they knew us.

We knew them too
before the gold light dimmed,
for through the soil we felt the steady beating of their hearts
where red sap ran, thin as rain.

So lovely was the song,
we did not wish the light to fade.
We did not wish that they should ever leave the earth.