Audubon

                                       VII. Tell Me a Story

                                              [A]

Long ago, in Kentucky, I, a boy, stood
By a dirt road, in first dark, and heard 
The great geese hoot northward.

I could not see them, there being no moon
And the stars sparse. I heard them.

I did not know what was happening in my heart.

It was the season before the elderberry blooms,
Therefore they were going north.

The sound was passing northward.


                                             [B]

Tell me a story.

In this century, and moment, of mania,
Tell me a story.

Make it a story of great distances, and starlight.

The name of the story will be Time, 
But you must not pronounce its name.

Tell me a story of great delight.


--Robert Penn Warren
    1969