"Place" -- W. S. Merwin

    "Place"

    On the last day of the world
    I would want to plant a tree

    what for
    not for the fruit

    the tree that bears the fruit
    is not the one that was planted

    I want the tree that stands
    in the earth for the first time

    with the sun already
    going down

    and the water
    touching its roots

    in the earth full of the dead
    and the clouds passing

    one by one
    over its leaves

    W. S. Merwin