Summary

The speaker addresses a large, broken statue that they are trying to repair. They keep trying, even though they know the work is futile. They imagine a cacophonous noise emanating from the statue’s mouth. The statue is proud and believes it can foretell the future, but the speaker has spent thirty years taking care of it and hasn’t gained any new insight. All day the speaker cleans and reassembles the broken statue, like an ant crawling over a hill. It is so large and lifeless that its eyes look like burial mounds.

The day is clear and bright, and the speaker pauses to eat lunch in the shadow of the statue’s ruins. They never leave the devastation, instead spending their nights curled up with the statue in the darkness. They no longer hope or wait for the statue’s life to...