when we were here together in a place we did not know, nor one <br />another. <br />A bit of grass held between the teeth for a moment, bright hair on the <br />wind. <br />What we were we did not know, nor even the grass or the flame of <br />hair turning to ash on the wind. <br />But they lied about that. From the beginning they lied. To the child, <br />telling him that there was somewhere anger against him, and a <br />hatred against him, and the only reason for his being in the <br />world. <br />But never did they tell him that the only evil and danger was in <br />themselves; that they alone were the prisoners and the betrayers; <br />that they - they alone - were responsible for what was being done <br />in the world. <br />And they told the child to starve and to kill the child that was within <br />him; for only by doing this could he become a useful and adjusted <br />member of the community which they had prepared for him. <br />And this time, alas, they did not lie. <br />And with the death of the child was born a thing that had neither <br />the character of a man nor the character of a child, but was a <br />horrible and monstrous parody of the two; and it is in this world <br />now that the flesh of man’s spirit lies twisted and despoiled under <br />the indifferent stars. <br />When we were here together in a place we did not know, nor one <br />another. <br />O green the bit of warm grass between our teeth. O beautiful the hair <br />of our mortal goddess on the indifferent wind.<br /><br />Kenneth Patchen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-we-were-here-together/
