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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FRESCO: DEPARTURE FOR AN IMPERIALIST WAR, by THOMAS MCGRATH Poet's Biography
First Line: They stand there weeping in the stained daylight
Last Line: Weeping, their arms embrace the only country they love
Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Death; Imperialism; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; War; Anti-war Protests; Dead, The
First Line: They stand there weeping in the stained daylight
Last Line: Weeping, their arms embrace the only country they love
Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Death; Imperialism; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975; War; Anti-war Protests; Dead, The
They stand there weeping in the stained daylight.
Nothing can stop them now from reaching the end of their youth.
Somewhere the Mayor salutes a winning team.
Somewhere the diplomats kiss in the long corridors of history.
Somewhere a politician is grafting a speech
On the green tree of American money.
Somewhere prayer; somewhere orders and papers.
Somewhere the poor are gathering illegal arms.
Meanwhile they are there on that very platform.
The train sails silently toward them out of American sleep,
And at last the two are arrived at the very point of departure.
He goes toward death and she toward loneliness.
Weeping, their arms embrace the only country they love.
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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TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT
CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY
NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND
ODE FOR THE AMERICAN DEAD IN ASIA by THOMAS MCGRATH