to the present tense

.

By the time you are

by the time you come to be

by the time you read this

by the time you are written

by the time you forget

by the time you are water through fingers

by the time you are taken for granted

by the time it hurts 

by the time it goes on hurting

by the time there are no words for you

by the time you remember

but without names

by the time you are in the papers

and on the telephone

passing unnoticed there too

who is it

to whom you come 

before whose very eyes

you are disappearing

without making yourself known

.

~ W.S. Merwin

from Present Company