it has the most tired feet
on earth, the man had said
while the three of them carried
the hydrangeas: sitting on its back
the child looked at the donkey and
at life unravelling at each bend of the road
like a sepia photograph from which
one never comes back. a very long
time afterwards, on the same road,
she saw the man on his own, no donkey
no flowers, and recognised in herself
the immense tiredness of the world.