Were for goods and spells, aids
For lords, for wealth and power
Past death. Tongues had been used
For all sorts of things, and
Had no need of ranked wealth,
But tongues caught from the air
Like birds and bats in nets
Were, from the first, for power
To keep a zoo of power,
Kings who thought they could rule
Past age, past death, past flesh.
They were both wrong and right.
For them, no—no such luck,
But the spells, oh, the spells
Still talk to us from tombs
And bricks, old walls and dumps.
And what do we mean, us?
We mean you. We’re the spells.
No one of you lives on
Through us. But we in you.
