I + 

Men with picked voices chant the names + 

of cities in a huge gallery: promises + 

that pull through descending stairways + 

to a deep rumbling. + 

The rubbing feet + 

of those coming to be carried quicken a + 

grey pavement into soft light that rocks + 

to and fro, under the domed ceiling, + 

across and across from pale + 

earthcolored walls of bare limestone. + 

Covertly the hands of a great clock + 

go round and round! Were they to + 

move quickly and at once the whole + 

secret would be out and the shuffling + 

of all ants be done forever. + 

A leaning pyramid of sunlight, narrowing + 

out at a high window, moves by the clock: + 

disaccordant hands straining out from + 

a center: inevitable postures infinitely + 

repeated⁠— + 