We halted in a town the host <br />ordered the table to be moved to the garden the first star <br />shone out and faded we were breaking bread <br />crickets were heard in the twilight loosestrife <br />a cry but a cry of a child otherwise the bustle <br />of insects of men a thick scent of earth <br />those who were sitting with their backs to the wall <br />saw violet now - the gallows hill <br />on the wall the dense ivy of executions <br /> <br />we were eating much <br />as is usual when nobody pays<br /><br />Zbigniew Herbert<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-halt/
