For lack of a nail the kingdom has fallen <br />—according to the wisdom of nursery schools—but in our kingdom <br />there have been no nails for a long time there aren’t and won’t be <br />either the small ones for hanging a picture <br />on a wall or large ones for closing a coffin <br /> <br />but despite this or maybe because of it <br />the kingdom persists and is even admired by others <br />how can one live without a nail paper or string <br />bricks oxygen freedom and whatever else <br />obviously one can since the kingdom lasts and lasts <br /> <br />people live in homes in our country not in caves <br />factories smoke on the steppe a train runs through the tundra <br />and a ship bleats on the cold ocean <br />there is an army and police an official seal hymn and flag <br />in appearance everything like anywhere in the world <br /> <br />but only in appearance for our kingdom <br />is not a creation of nature or a human creation <br />seemingly permanent built on the bones of mammoths <br />in reality it is weak as if brought to a stop <br />between act and thought being and nonbeing <br /> <br /> what is real—a leaf and a stone—falls <br /> but spectres live long obstinately despite <br /> the rising and setting of the sun revolutions of heavenly bodies <br /> on the shamed earth fall the tears of objects<br /><br />Zbigniew Herbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-fable-about-a-nail/
