Testimonies

“Others at their porches ...”

1.

“I baited bears and prayed. The Queen

Grew inky on Boethius. Between

The angels and the animals we lived and died.

The sun, the King, and my own being blazed as one.

I spoke occasionally to God.”

2.

“I circumcise my son and laud

The covenant. The massacres go on.

And now, plunder, expulsion. Poisoned fountains drown

The Synagogue. Blood stains the font;

The staff breaks toward the desert in my hands.”

3.

“I did not see the Grail. Sir John

Lay dying at the bridge. When barbers cut away

Those spongy growths from the poor soldiers’ gums,

The whole camp echoed with our cries.

I place the cauldron of God’s wrath upon the coals.”

4.

“I watch the world contract to this

Gray winter Grub Street where the scavengers

Drop in the cold. The famine spreads more every day.

God save the King, the Army, and the House of Lords!

The rags fall from my arms outside the coffee-house.”

5.

“I live. The Elevated shudders to a stop

At Twenty-Eighth and Third. Among

The nuns and crippled Negroes, we descend

The stairway to the street, to red-cheeked chromo Christ,

Hung with the bloody calves’ heads in the butcher shop.”