Herds of reindeer move across miles and miles of golden moss, silently and very fast.
Moss, altogether elsewhere, and vast
The Fall of Rome
(excerpt)
Caesar’s double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.Unendowed with wealth or pity,
Little birds with scarlet legs,
Sitting on their speckled eggs,
Eye each flu-infected city.Altogether elsewhere, vast
Herds of reindeer move across
Miles and miles of golden moss,
Silently and very fast.by W. H. Auden
(February 1907 – September 1973)
full text: The Fall of Rome, 1947
contained in Collected Poems
