They do not shout again.
He is singing like a wind or a bird
When the leading wolf leaps.
They hear the crunch of bones.
Birds do not come again
To that rock near the cave.
Their songs and calls go silent when People come.
Young ones, squatting outside the cave
Try bird sounds.
What a gurgling, guggling,
Coughing, hissing, and spitting...
Their lips pushed forward,
They try, they try.
As If They Had Always Known It
Once, long ago,
then .
..
The young ones born were One, Two, Three,
But if death or deaths
One, Two, Three again.
A she could have child One with different faces,
One, One, One again.
And if child Two when the food was good
And the long light long and no dying
Then this Two might have the same face,
But if death or deaths
Two, Two, and Two again.
From the cave they called One! Two!
(Or even Three in a very good time.)
More than one One or Two might come running.
