— Messengers by Louise Glück

You have only to wait, they will find you.

The geese flying low over the marsh,

glittering in black water.

They find you.

And the deer–

how beautiful they are,

as though their bodies did not impede them.

Slowly they drift into the open

through bronze panels of sunlight.

Why would they stand so still

if they were not waiting?

Almost motionless, until their cages rust,

the shrubs shiver in the wind,

squat and leafless.

You have only to let it happen:

that cry–release, release–like the moon

wrenched out of earth and rising

full in its circle of arrows

until they come before you

like dead things, saddled with flesh,

and you above them, wounded and dominant.