At Condé sur Risle

COWLEY Christian-DICKER (Anglais)
25.7.44

1

From the war that ended wars
into the war that succeeded it
ramifying across brass insertions
and scoured accommodations of stone
a lacework alphabet of death
crawls like black periwinkle
down and around the plinth
to flower finally (for now)
as his bewildered name
on a small white afterthought tile.

The grounds of disbelief endlessly acceding.


2

I imagine a baffled tenderness -
faces stooped in the Mairie over there
beneath the carte du départment
...