The black bird that in its beak
carries a break-time meal
to St Anthony on his site
in the desert may be the one with
the heart of glass, the bird
flying ever closer to us, of which another prophet of the last days announces
that it will shit into the sea
so that the water boils itself out,
that the earth trembles and the great city
with the iron tower stands in flames,
whilst the Pope squats in a barge and darkness comes and with it a yellow dust
that covers the land.
from After Nature - W.G. Sebald