I saw through half-shut eyelids a vulture wheeling    high up in heaven

And presently it passed again, but lower and nearer, its orbitnarrowing, I understood then

I could see the naked red head between the great wings

Bear downward staring. I said, "My dear bird, we are wasting time here."

These old bones will still work; they are not for you.

But how beautiful he looked, gliding down

On those great sails; how beautiful he looked, veering away in the sea-light over the precipice.

I tell you solemnly that I was sorry to have disappointed him.

To be eaten by that beak and become part of him

to share those wings and those eyes

What a sublime end of one's body, what and enskyment; what a life after death.

That I was under inspection. I lay death-still and heard the flight-feathers

Whistle above me and make their circle and come nearer.

I had walked since dawn and lay down to rest on a bare hillsideAbove the ocean.