VIII
Given the solemn river,
given the trees along the banks,
given the summer warmth,
the evening light-what
could have foretold the sudden
apparition of these two
speeding by as if late
for the world's end, their engine
shaking the air, breaking
the water's mirrors?
The trees and the sky hush
with dismay, and then,
upon the return of reflection,
with sorrow. How many years
of labor to become completely
anomalous everywhere?

Wendell Berry
Sabbaths 1998