Against the Evidence: Selected Poems, 1934–1994

In Ancient Times

again to let its light shine on my face. FROM The Gentle Weight Lifter (1955) In Ancient Times And they took Abu and stoked the fire with him, and then Azu, after Abu was consumed, to keep the blaze high. It was a night of wild animals, a fire was needed to ward them off. Abu by his own choice was killed for fuel and then Azu to keep the others safe; and so on down the line, one by one, until morning. Men, women and children who would not die in this manner were forced to by their own hand, for the sake of the others, after a long talk. And in the morning the great band arose from around the dead ash and moved on to new grounds and new possibilities; and in the afternoon asalways when they were starved pairedoff and killed each other for their food. There was nothing to eat over the whole wide plain of their wandering, and nothing to work with to turn the soil—like lead, anyhow. They had come by a blind route from orchards and fields in their wandering to this forsakenness, over which the lions howled for the flesh that crawled by. 29 ...