A guardian of long-distance conduits in the desert? <br />A one-man crew of a fortress in the sand? <br />Whoever he was. At dawn he saw furrowed mountains <br />The color of ashes, above the melting darkness, <br />Saturated with violet, breaking into fluid rouge, <br />Till they stood, immense, in the orange light. <br />Day after day. And, before he noticed, year after year. <br />For whom, he thought, that splendor? For me alone? <br />Yet it will be here long after I perish. <br />What is it in the eye of a lizard? Or when seen by a migrant bird? <br />If I am all mankind, are they themselves without me? <br />And he knew there was no use crying out, for none of them would save him.<br /><br />Czeslaw Milosz<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/study-of-loneliness/
