The Millennial Pedestrian

War always seems to be raging someplace; and poets have always been good at pointing out the costs. Denise Levertov wrote "Tenebrae" just as the war in Viet Nam was escalating from bad to much worse and the country was torn between denial and confrontation. History does repeat itself, but never exactly the same way. Still, some of Levertov’s lines resonate with chilling precision today.

 Tenebrae
(Fall of 1967)

Heavy, heavy, heavy, hand and heart.
We are at war,
bitterly, bitterly at war.

And the buying and selling
buzzes at our heads, a swarm
of busy flies, a kind of innocence.

Gowns of gold sequins are fitted,
sharp-glinting. What harsh rustlings
of silver moiré there are,
to remind me of the shrapnel splinters.

And weddings are held in full solemnity
not of desire but of etiquette,
the nuptial pomp of starched lace,
a grim innocence.

And picnic parties return from the beaches
burning with stored sun in the dusk;
children promised a TV show when they get home
fall asleep in the back of a million station wagons,
sand in their hair, the sound of waves
quietly persistent at their ears.
They are not listening.

Their parents at night
dream and forget their dreams.
They wake in the dark
and make plans. Their sequin plans
glitter into tomorrow.
They buy, they sell.

They fill freezers with food.
Neon signs flash their intentions
into the years ahead.

And at their ears the sound
of the war. They are
not listening, not listening.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007.
It's part of the Prose category.
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