Too late now to seek another way;
      The road grows alien as the border nears;
A hard star mars the fading of the day.

No other searcher went so far astray;
      No other’s footprint in the path appears.
Too late now to seek another way

Into that brooding landscape where to stay.
      One hour wears out in time one thousand years.
A hard star mars the fading of the day

And casts a faltering, indifferent ray
      Upon the withered pastures, stones and briars.
Too late now to seek another way

To attend the healing ritual, to say
      The magisterial phrases. No one cares.
A hard star mars the failing of the day

As in the west clouds gather thick and gray
      And night its eastward scarp of darkness rears:
Too late now to seek another way.
A bad star marks the failure of the day.