This Ancient Thread; Prologue, Draft #2

I bend to look at a thread I see before me;
it runs ahead too far for me to see,
and the beginning of it runs far off behind me,
a dot in the endless distance.
This thread is worn but not too well worn,
copper brown after the long passage of time.
And as if peering downward through a microscope
I see that it frays into a thousand smaller more intimate strands,
some thin but well-worn, burs whose itch tell the tale;
others robust and strong, full and smooth to the touch, unused but nevertheless ready for their task;
some long, pulled thinner still but clinging with what little might pull;
some stained with blood, stained-changed color to dark red, brown-blood from iron wrought from tears and toils;
some colored the color of love of life of the sun; pale gold and silver glittering reflections of starlight.
One thread is a thousand. A thousand threads is one.