Kristi (Kristiane Diana Montana)'s Page

Listen, W. S. Merwin

Listen…
with the night falling we are saying thank you,
we are stopping on the bridge to bow from the railings,
we are running out of the glass rooms
with our mouths full of food to look at the sky
and say thank you,
we are standing by the water looking out
in different directions,

back from a series of hospitals, back from a mugging,
after funerals we are saying thank you.
After the news of the dead, whether or not we knew them
we are saying thank you.
In a culture up to its chin in shame,
living in the stench it has chosen
we are saying thank you.

Over telephones we are saying thank you,
in doorways and in the backs of cars and in elevators,
remembering wars and the police at the back door
and the beatings on stairs, we are saying thank you.

In the banks that use us we are saying thank you,
with the crooks in office, with the rich and fashionable,
unchanged we go on saying thank you thank you.

With the animals dying around us,
our lost feelings, we are saying thank you.
With the forests falling faster
than the minutes of our lives we are saying thank you.
With the words going out like cells of a brain,
with the cities growing over us like the earth
we are saying thank you faster and faster.
With nobody listening we are saying thank you,
we are saying thank you and waving,
dark though it is.
—W.S. Merwin