Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, QUERY, by HELEN SLACK WICKENDEN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

QUERY, by                    
First Line: Why did you leave the lemon grove
Last Line: And the twisted olive tree?
Subject(s): Ethiopia


Why did you leave the lemon grove
And the twisted olive tree?

I stood by the listening water,
Hearing the tread of determined feet,
Watching you off to war,
Young, laughing, loving,
An endless line,
Creeping sinuously,
Curling dragon-like
Over the hills blue with cypresses,
Past the villas, old and crumbling,
Down to the rim of the sea.

On you went to a land that was all unknown,
On where the roads led nowhere,
And the sun no solace was,
Where the rain battered the turf without pity,
Where the camel turned with an unsuspecting smile,
As the enemy, child-fashion, gazed up at you,
From tangles of yellow grass.

Ethiopia! A small black figure nailed to a new cross!

I, even I, who loved you, cry in my heart,
Why did you leave the lemon grove
And the twisted olive tree?





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