Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GO ASK THE DEAD, by THOMAS MCGRATH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GO ASK THE DEAD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The soldier, past full retreat, is marching out of the grave
Last Line: You have climbed to the moon on a ladder of dead men's bones!
Subject(s): Death; Soldiers; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; War; Dead, The


1.

The soldier, past full retreat, is marching out of the grave
As he lies under dying grass in the slow judgment of time
On which he has lost his grasp.
And lost his taste as well --
For, tell-tale as fast as it will, no tongue can put salt on his name.
The captain sun has done with this numberless underground.

2.

He has seeded out of that flesh where the flashing lights first fade
In the furry sky of the head.
And the orient admiral brain
Has seen its images go like ensigns blown from a line --
Those raving signals.
All quality's bled from his light,
And number (he's all thumbs now) divides where infinities fail.

3.

Grand winds of the sky might claim; or the blue hold
Of ocean accept;
or fire sublime --
though it's earth
Now hinders and halters
him.
But those underground birds, his bones,
(Homeless all havens save here) fly out of their low-hilled heavens
And shine up into the light to blaze in his land's long lie.

4.

And long they lie there but not for love in the windy contentions
Of sun and rain, shining. This endless invasion of death
Darkens our world. There is no argument that will move them.
"You are eating our light!" they cry. "Where have you taken the sun?
You have climbed to the moon on a ladder of dead men's bones!"


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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