Part 5 (2/2)
Burnt like a shot of bootleg booze In the bones of his head-- In the wish of his scar-face eyes.
The honorable orators, Always the honorable orators, b.u.t.toning the b.u.t.tons on their prinz alberts, p.r.o.nouncing the syllables ”sac-ri-fice,”
Juggling those bitter salt-soaked syllables-- Do they ever gag with hot ashes in their mouths?
Do their tongues ever shrivel with a pain of fire Across those simple syllables ”sac-ri-fice”?
(There was one orator people far off saw.
He had on a gunnysack s.h.i.+rt over his bones, And he lifted an elbow socket over his head, And he lifted a skinny signal finger.
And he had nothing to say, nothing easy-- He mentioned ten million men, mentioned them as having gone west, mentioned them as shoving up the daisies.
We could write it all on a postage stamp, what he said.
He said it and quit and faded away, A gunnysack s.h.i.+rt on his bones.)
Stars of the night sky, did you see that phantom fadeout, did you see those phantom riders, skeleton riders on skeleton horses, stems of roses in their teeth, rose leaves red on white-jaw slants, grinning along on Pennsylvania Avenue, the top-sergeants calling roll calls-- did their horses nicker a horse laugh?
did the ghosts of the boney battalions move out and on, up the Potomac, over on the Ohio and out to the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Red River, and down to the Rio Grande, and on to the Yazoo, over to the Chattahoochee and up to the Rappahannock?
did you see 'em, stars of the night sky?
And so to-day--they lay him away-- the boy n.o.body knows the name of-- they lay him away in granite and steel-- with music and roses--under a flag-- under a sky of promises.
CALIFORNIA CITY LANDSCAPE
On a mountain-side the real estate agents Put up signs marking the city lots to be sold there.
A man whose father and mother were Irish Ran a goat farm half-way down the mountain; He drove a covered wagon years ago, Understood how to handle a rifle, Shot grouse, buffalo, Indians, in a single year, And now was raising goats around a shanty.
Down at the foot of the mountain Two j.a.panese families had flower farms.
A man and woman were in rows of sweet peas Picking the pink and white flowers To put in baskets and take to the Los Angeles market.
They were clean as what they handled There in the morning sun, the big people and the baby-faces.
Across the road, high on another mountain, Stood a house saying, ”I am it,” a commanding house.
There was the home of a motion picture director Famous for lavish wh.o.r.e-house interiors, Clothes ransacked from the latest designs for women In the combats of ”male against female.”
The mountain, the scenery, the layout of the landscape, And the peace of the morning sun as it happened, The miles of houses pocketed in the valley beyond-- It was all worth looking at, worth wondering about, How long it might last, how young it might be.
UPSTREAM
The strong men keep coming on.
They go down shot, hanged, sick, broken.
They live on, fighting, singing, lucky as plungers.
The strong men ... they keep coming on.
The strong mothers pulling them from a dark sea, a great prairie, a long mountain.
Call hallelujah, call amen, call deep thanks.
The strong men keep coming on.
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