everything dances

a swarm of gnats

many thousand glittering motes
crowd forward greedily together
in trembling circles.
extravagantly carousing away
for a whole hour rapidly vanishing,
they rave, delirious, a shrill whir,
shivering with joy against death.
while kingdoms, sunk into ruin,
whose thrones, heavy with gold, instantly scattered
into night and legend, without leaving a trace,
have never known so fierce a dancing.

--hermann hesse