How These Words Happened
In winter, in the dark hours,
when others were asleep,
I found these words
and put them together
by their appetites
and respect for each other.
In stillness, they jostled.
They traded meanings
while pretending to have only one.
Monstrous alliances never
dreamed of before
began.
Sometimes they lost.
Never again do they separate
in this world.
They are together.
They have a fidelity that no purpose
of pretense can ever break.
And all this happens like magic
to the words in those dark hours
while others sleep.
William Stafford
Posted over on Friends of William Stafford
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