quite why we bother

down the heat and the path along

[by the railway]

by the railway-fennel ]grows it is difficult to find[
though its scent

..................................is everywhere after.

(You have crossed the old, collapsing bridge.)

the big mill chimney is still there—unstill
it shakes down a plume of shade that cycles
like a sun dial gnomon

......records nothing but its own presence
on the water

where sometimes-geese in their own concerns

and chase away the smaller ducks
halfheartedly

"halfway to here and there is that bridge
and after that I don't know"

it seems futile sometimes
but humans are good at/getting/up/again
...............walking
after having been laid waste

like everywhere flies after a volcano

.