David Ferry, “That Now Are Wild and Do Not Remember”

Where did you go to, when you went away?It is as if you step by step were goingSomeplace elsewhere into some other rangeOf speaking, that I had no gift for speaking,Knowing nothing of the language of that placeTo which you went with naked foot at nightInto the wilderness there elsewhere in the bed,Elsewhere somewhere in the house beyond my seeking.I have been so dislanguaged by what happenedI cannot speak the words that somewhere youMaybe were speaking to others where you went.Maybe they talk together where they areRestlessly wandering, along the shore,Waiting for a way to cross the river.—David Ferry, “That Now Are Wild and Do Not Remember”