Elegy To a Nation
A man stands on a hilltop, weeping.
Come and see.
For he has watched a nation unaware,
chipped away to just this memory.
We'd found that we could meet a war,
and through a sacrifice to find its end
and then in one obscenity, (a burst of light)
attended with our souls the foetal cavity
of madness--gave to the world
a blood-besotted flag,
and yielded up its ghost.
His tears come hotter, for
they cannot be assuaged.
Once we knew that love existed.
Beauty quietly confirmed itself
before our eyes; we had a god
and ate his flesh, and drank of him--
and once we lost ourselves in moonlight.
Once we sang.
And shall we turn away?
Such grief is unconsolable
and may not be forever shared.
The man has tears enough for us.
Our nation, swept away by greed,
left us only with this hilltop.
Come, and let us find the strength
for our own weeping,
our own blasphemous eternity.
~
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