A Country Retreat in the Depths of Time

When the hoe turned over fresh soil,

the whole village awoke.

Grandfather's cough

startled the sparrows from the locust tree.

The sunlight over the threshing ground

sifted better than Mother's winnowing basket.

The plump grains of wheat

learned silence before dusk.

The moss by the well

grew softer with every passing year.

The creaking of the well pulley

suddenly became tangled in wild weeds.

As moonlight bleached the courtyard,

every farming tool began to lose sleep.

They remembered

every seed's childhood nickname.