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spiralsheep) wrote2025-11-11 02:39 pm
spiralsheep) wrote2025-11-11 02:39 pm
In which there was an Armistice
Armistice, by Paul Dehn*
It is finished. The enormous dust-cloud over Europe
Lifts like a million swallows; and a light,
Drifting in craters, touches the quiet dead.
Now, at the bugle’s hour, before the blood
Cakes in a clean wind on their marble faces,
Making them monuments; before the sun,
Hung like a medal on the smoky noon,
Whitens the bone that feeds the earth; before
Wheat-ear springs green again, in the green spring
And they are bread in the bodies of the young:
Be strong to remember how the bread died, screaming;
Gangrene was corn, and monuments went mad.
----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- -----------
* Yes, the same Paul Dehn as Mrs Ravoon - he had quite the range.
It is finished. The enormous dust-cloud over Europe
Lifts like a million swallows; and a light,
Drifting in craters, touches the quiet dead.
Now, at the bugle’s hour, before the blood
Cakes in a clean wind on their marble faces,
Making them monuments; before the sun,
Hung like a medal on the smoky noon,
Whitens the bone that feeds the earth; before
Wheat-ear springs green again, in the green spring
And they are bread in the bodies of the young:
Be strong to remember how the bread died, screaming;
Gangrene was corn, and monuments went mad.
----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- ----------- -----------
* Yes, the same Paul Dehn as Mrs Ravoon - he had quite the range.
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