Monument

    Upon the monument of time
    Stood silent in the market square
    There sits a bird captive and tame
    Who sings as if it is the voice
    Of time, as if it sings its prayer
    To some surely forgotten race
    That only time remembers now
    Whose 'you and yours' is 'thee and thou',
    And as I heard this mournful song
    I looked that statue in the face.
    'You do not live here or belong
    In this place where people go
To love and live,' at which (it left no trace)
The statue fled in fear, or somewhat so.