How the Gods Learned to Die


When the gods were so old they could not walk, 
they sat in a circle facing outward on the horizon 
so that each saw a different thing---
 a boulder, a hillock, a tree with a blackbird at the top, 
a wave breaking, a mulberry  bush, a cloud. 

My legs are like tree trunks, said the first god.

My eyes are like stone,  said the second.

My tongue is like ice, said the third.

My fingernails are like seashells, said the fourth.

It is time for us,  said the fifth.

The sixth god, facing outward so that he looked at a cloud, 
said, Let us be what we see and let what we see be us.

But that has always  been so,  said the seventh god.

And so the gods sat still on the horizon, in a circle,
 facing outward, looking at themselves.

And that is why, when the gods close their eyes, 
the world will disappear.

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