Long before our time they called her old, br But she'd walk down the same road every day. br Her age became too much to say br In years — and, like a forest's, would be told br br In centuries. She comes to stand at dusk — br Her spot each time the same — and to foretell. br She is a hollow, wrinkled husk, br Dark as a fire-gutted citadel. br br She has to turn her flock of talking loose br Or it will grow too crowded to relieve. br Flapping and screaming, words are flying all br br Around her. Then, returning home to roost, br They find a perch beneath her eyebrows' eaves, br And in that shadow wait for night to fall.