Out There in Nepal

​Out there in Nepal, entire landscapes
Are wiped away, just a lot of scree,
Just gray rocks, just paths that 
Go wrong, heaped up debris,

Where porters carried knives, where
It was dangerous to sleep, where
The women huddled together, where
Before dawn a rumble ruffled the air,

The rocks shook, fissures
Flew across the earth, and shook
The caravans. The pikas trembled,
Stunted hemlocks along a dry brook,

And at night the freezing stars
Called for rebellion, quakes,
For war, overturning hillside
Villages, fevers, aches

And rot, until a wind blew
Back from the south, jangled
Doors, sap flowed into roots,
Rain fell, knots were untangled,

The villagers bent under piles of brush.
Light flashed and darkness swallowed
The valleys, winds rose and swooped,
The sun rose and the hawks followed,

The waterfall crashed, it rorared
And cried, the path shone and glinted
From the rain and the sahdows
Were crisp and black and indigo-tinted.