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And at this place
Flocks of jackdaws
Like a plague

Telling us messages
Over and over
Like the waves

"You can't win
You will get old
Die like everyone else"

These wise birds
Live everywhere here
Like people

The town and
The bare rocky valleys
Like gorges, dead lakes

Where the river fell out
It dried
Piled like rock

Ruins and legends
All false, impossible
Like we knew

What the birds tell us
Eyes black beads in white
Like automata

Or like some
Wisdom burst out
A dreadful warning

Black bodies flying
Into night, sky
And sea