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. ~