The people and...

That man I remember well,
and at least two centuries
have passed since I last saw him;

He travelled neither on horseback
    nor in a carriage,
always on foot
he undid
the distances,
carrying neither sword nor weapon
but nets on his shoulder,
ax or hammer or spade;
he never fought with another of his kind-
his struggle was with water or with earth,
with the wheat,
for it to become bread,
with the towering tree,
for it to yield wood,
with walls,
to open doors in them,
with sand,
to form it into walls,
and with the sea,
to make it bear fruit.

I know him...
And he goes on haunting me.