from The Next Time

I

Nobody sees it happening, but the architecture of our time
Is becoming the architecture of the next time.

And the dazzle of light upon the waters is as nothing
Beside the changes wrought therein, just as our waywardness

Means nothing against the steady pull of things over the edge.
Naturally, we are concerned. Nobody can stop

The flow, but nobody can start it either. Time slips by;
Our sorrows do not turn into poems, and what is invisible

Stays that way. Too bad desire has fled, leaving only a trace
Of perfume in its wake, too bad so many people are moving away,

Too bad no voice comes forth from infinite space, from the folds
Of dust and carpets of wind to tell us that this

Is the way it was meant to happen, that if only we knew
How long the ruins would last, we would never complain.

--Mark Strand

The Devil & The Stars