Forgotten Ground Regained
The Domestication
With huffings and blats · they hied themselvesinto our presence, · eagerly massed,warm though weightless, · awaiting their calland the wished-for burdens · that a breath would loador a sob, a shudder, · a seething rage.In time, conceiving, · we took them on,fumblingly first · then faster, learning,our skill as packers · improving tillin a single moment · we could send hundredsabroad, laden · with burdens of oursthough they, unseen, · lacked substance and bone.This, too, we found: · these flying things,energized air, · once out, were gone.No tears of ours could · toll them back.The wonder is how · once, as they milled,their strength unguessed, · we stood unbrokenby loads that the moaning herds · longed to take from us.
Copyright © Donald Mace Williams, 2023
First published in Forgotten Ground Regained: A Journal of Alliterative Verse, New Series, Issue 2, Spring, 2024
Answer: words