“Others at their porches ...” <br /> <br />1. <br />“I baited bears and prayed. The Queen <br />Grew inky on Boethius. Between <br />The angels and the animals we lived and died. <br />The sun, the King, and my own being blazed as one. <br />I spoke occasionally to God.” <br /> <br />2. <br />“I circumcise my son and laud <br />The covenant. The massacres go on. <br />And now, plunder, expulsion. Poisoned fountains drown <br />The Synagogue. Blood stains the font; <br />The staff breaks toward the desert in my hands.” <br /> <br />3. <br />“I did not see the Grail. Sir John <br />Lay dying at the bridge. When barbers cut away <br />Those spongy growths from the poor soldiers’ gums, <br />The whole camp echoed with our cries. <br />I place the cauldron of God’s wrath upon the coals.” <br /> <br />4. <br />“I watch the world contract to this <br />Gray winter Grub Street where the scavengers <br />Drop in the cold. The famine spreads more every day. <br />God save the King, the Army, and the House of Lords! <br />The rags fall from my arms outside the coffee-house.” <br /> <br />5. <br />“I live. The Elevated shudders to a stop <br />At Twenty-Eighth and Third. Among <br />The nuns and crippled Negroes, we descend <br />The stairway to the street, to red-cheeked chromo Christ, <br />Hung with the bloody calves’ heads in the butcher shop.”<br /><br />Weldon Kees<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/testimonies/
