YOU WILL NEVER BE ALONE
BY WILLIAM STAFFORD
You will never be alone, you hear so deep
A sound when autumn comes. Yellow
Pulls across the hills and thrums,
Or the silence after lightning before it says
Its names—and then the clouds’ wide-mouthed
Apologies. You were aimed from birth:
You will never be alone. Rain
Will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
Long aisles—you never heard so deep a sound,
Moss or rock, and years. You turn your head—
That’s what the silence meant: you’re not alone.
The whole wide world pours down.