| CURRENT
ISSUE |
| |
| FEATURES |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ABOUT
US |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| SERVICES |
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Thunderstruck
Hey kid! Sex and the death of men bring tourists
From near and far. Not monuments or reverent
Deeds but the predations of wild dogs,
The sex dog and death dog, who are gods.
Egypt, Egypt. Of your reverent deeds
Only stories will survive. And they will
Be incredible to your children. --Nonetheless
(Fulminato! Thunderstruck.) I write it out:
How it is (believe me) I've two bad hats.
August, in Egypt, a majestic day.
Thunderous. What fell to earth? and why?
What traffic in the air? What Grand Caprice
Along the ground blew up my hat that settled
In the stream --like Cowper's "Castaway"--
And vanished from the eye? In the same instant,
I saw the bloody animal on the rail:
What dog killed this cat? --Summer lies on the horse's
Face like a hood of flies, covering the nostrils
And the eyes. Spring bleats still from over there
Under the hill, like unseen sheep. The bull.
No slouch, is hard at work among the dampish
Rot of bottom amaranth. And the badger
From the badger's sett is out. The dead cat
Welters in its blood. And the hat is lost.
O kid! What is the interest of all this?
What, then, shall we love? I am thunderstruck
Like an old man who suddenly remembers
He has killed his own son, drunk on the roads.
Here come the tourists forsaking the pyramids
To look at me. I'm sick to death of the light
By which I live. You and I know, dilectissime,
The agile dog Anubis hunts the beautiful
Foals of the wild mares on the dike above
The town. He says, "Sex is better than death
Although not so easy to come by." --And now
It dawns on me: That's what's called true love.
Keep your distance, kid. I'm a dangerous man.
Lightning follows me. Whoever built the pyramids
Did it in one day. --Lightning follows me
And then thunder and, soon enough, the rain.
--Allen Grossman
|
|
home