Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WAR by EDWIN M. ERICKSON

First Line: EVEN AS I LAUGH NOW, SO YOU WILL LAUGH THEN
Last Line: AND WE FORGET THE WOUND THAT CRAWLS, AND BURNS, AND FESTERS IN THE SUN.
Subject(s): WAR;

Even as I laugh now, so you will laugh then --
Those of you who are left.

Men cannot laugh. or love the life they live,
If blood is used to purge bad blood.
Listen to women echo the cries of paunchy men,
Yet, their voices echo, not they;
Their hands gripping the child more tightly,
They wonder when his time will come.

Oh, what cries shrieking in the night --
Cries of moral right! Cries of fascist supremacy!
Cries that send the thrill of war abroad!
And we forget the wound that crawls, and burns, and festers in the sun.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net