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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TWIN PENDANTS, by BEN JACKSON
First Line: From the ice-choked throat of the northern pole
Last Line: To rest in the caves of your ocean?
Subject(s): Earth; World
First Line: From the ice-choked throat of the northern pole
Last Line: To rest in the caves of your ocean?
Subject(s): Earth; World
From the ice-choked throat of the Northern Pole,
the Americas dangle
like dual pendants, uneasily swaying.
The breast of the world is heaving
in troubled respiration.
To the right, the taut fingers of Europe
Tap ... rub-a-dub ... on a table ...
(No toasts are drunk at Geneva!)
To the left, dinosaurian Asia
is restless in pregnancy ...
where shall the lay her young?
To the right, the sabers of Europe
are phobiously whetted
for the masters of men or the mastered neighbors...
and the scars on the bellies of Europe are itching
for the vermin of hate gnaw upon them.
To the left, dinosaurian Asia
wades, mumbling out in the ocean
and gropes in the fog of her fathers.
And the twin pendants:
the thin-linked Americas, dangling,
uneasily swaying, losing their luster ...
dull with cupidity's canker.
O, ice-choked throat of the Northern Pole
with your pendant Americas dangling,
shall the twitching talons of Europe
claw from your throat your locket?
Shall the bulge of Asia cloak it in fog?
Shall the canker eat at your locket
until the jewels have fallen
like the fabled isles of Atlantis
to rest in the caves of your ocean?
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
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