First The Dog
to
So first the faithful dog will go and after it a pig or ass through the black grass will beat a track along it will the first man steal who with iron hand will smother on his glass brow a drop of fear so first the dog honest mongrel which has never abandoned us dreaming of earthly lamps and bones will fall asleep in its whirling kennel its warm blood boiling drying away but we behind the dog and second dog which guides us on a leash we with the astronauts’ white cane awkwardly we bump into stars we see nothing we hear nothing we beat with our fists on the dark ether on all the wavelengths is a whining everything we can carry on board through the cinders of dark worlds name of man scent of apple acorn of sound quarter of colour should all be saved for our return so we can find the route in an instant when the blind dog leading us barks at the earth as at the moon
Zbigniew Herbert
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