Forgotten Ground Regained

The Domestication: A Riddle

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.
Photograph courtesy of Ivy Allen, USFS. The answer to the riddle is not 'bird'
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Answer: words