Thursday, May 5, 2011

Late Night Final (Brian Howard)







Poets, write your final poems
    Lovers, play your game ---
The leaves will fall for different reasons
One of these autumns, and none of the seasons
     Will ever be quite the same.

Sparkling soldiers now prepare
      What they were born to do---
The death for which they live their lives
They wish to share it with their wives
       Their children, and with you.







-- Brian Howard
(Published in Harper's Magazine, March 1952)

2 comments:

  1. Ouch. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

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  2. I know. A disquieting period, to say the least. I often find myself thinking about Lou Reed's refrain in "Heroin": "I guess that I just don't know." Curtis

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