Age

I've seen high monuments that spoke of years
Spent building in communal works of love;
I've passed great fortresses built out of fears
Which they became the shape and model of.
I've wandered calmly down deserted streets
Whose very narrowness told me a tale
Of old beginnings and how time accretes
Small changes into large by changing scale.
I've walked through palaces that only served
To gratify a modern tourist trade;
I've felt the ancient honors men preserved
And seen where their recipients were laid.
And all these things I notice linger less
Than poems and the wonders they profess.