Tunnel

✺

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well. Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next.

—Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

~

After rain
after many days without rain,
it stays cool, private and cleansed,
under the trees,
and the dampness there,
married now to gravity,
falls branch to branch,
leaf to leaf,
down to the ground
where it will disappear—
but not, of course, vanish
except to our eyes.
The roots of the oaks
will have their share,
and the white threads of the grasses,
and the cushion of moss;
a few drops, round as pearls,
will enter the mole’s tunnel;
and soon so many small stones,
buried for a thousand years,
will feel themselves being touched.