Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GIVE US THE ENEMY, by ALICE MONKS MEARS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GIVE US THE ENEMY, by                    
First Line: Then after the visible beast
Last Line: Give us the enemy: name his name.
Subject(s): Enemies; Evil; Monsters


Then after the visible beast
is killed, the steely talons creased
into loam and sea-floor, blunt with rust,
what terror will be shaping dust
in noon light, suddenly to freeze
the ardent hand's least industries?

Terror of what? What is the evil?
What is the fiend or demon, devil,
beast or serpent coming and going,
that finally eludes the knowing
hunter, that cannot be
trapped, slain, finished completely?
Invulnerable of all that flees
dose it slide and coil in burnished ease?
Or does it crouch where none can maim
feline as midnight? Has it name
whose refuge is inaccessible
in the crags of man's will?

Give it a name, the thing that preys
and destroys before the wary gaze
without identity, escapes
by its kaleidoscopic shapes.
Under gesture and monotone
gliding to disappear, half-known,
it leaves abhorrent trace, and fear
screams look, look, it was here —
as if the murderer's glove were found
on the chair (he safe on exile ground),
glove tangible as the wearer,
limp, useless, fingered with terror. ...

The visible beast no more to blame,
give us the enemy: name his name.





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