Kyrielle

Tomorrow: Lento!

If trees could speak as well as you
You would be silenced by that view
Of memory nailed against their grain--
A bark that sings against our pain.

You'd write no fields of poppies red
Or let grass cradle soldiers' heads.
(These leaves drank blood, and held no stain!
O shall the earth sing forth our pain?)

I have not wandered restless nights
In forest or in city light
Among the bodies of the slain
To hear the earth sing forth its pain--

But rather found unearnèd peace
Beneath the streetlamps and the leaves
And felt the wars washed by the rain.
Let not the earth sing forth our pain!