We filed quietly onto the open grass
Dawn calls first dimly down
violent at the ramparts
somber in the first and jade fingertips
I like to remember.
Drenched in felt
swallowed
as the sun stricken in stone
each of us alcoves alone
smoked and
silent as no ember
badges at our breast
elite and numberless
as the the foxtails
chests full of thistles and florets.
Sure as the burs on the bull in the heather
as the pride of all our savior fathers
as the flood of the love
shoulder to knees
for our daughters and mothers
and lovers back home
to whom we'd sacrifice anything
or ourselves dive readily
drop like alkaloids out of the ether
black as a sun behind the ramparts
I like to remember.
drop like alkaloids out of the ether
black as a sun behind the ramparts
I like to remember.
Some rumored us cloven statesmen
or barons
in town they ruled apartheid
Some said we came from the forest
others
smugglers from the lower rhine
Gamma rushed first
Delta thrice behind
The hairs on my neck stood
when they met the north wall
circling down over the open side
The rest we went west to find
A straggler or a visitor
a naive or a slave
however meek
however blind
We filed quietly into the vacant halls
Zeta calls first, a grim sound
Violent in the silence and somber
It was a disappointment
I like to remember.
There had been a coup
And the dissenters we believed
had come here to pray
I put my hands in my pockets
anstatt hof watching walked away
the only remaining occupant
was a hanging bolshevik
wrong castle, wrong day