The suicides will never cease
To sweep the peaks in fighter planes
Informers, or the rich, will keep
The valley for their patriot pains.
The epoch of the second finest
Killing for the second best
Hangs like a ticket round our journey--
A welcome, then, to unsuccess.
Madness-in-action on the height
The spirit's death below--
There's only left the timber line
Where the pine meets the snow.
Where the last of Europe's eagles
Starve, and watch the mountain road
With the ibex for their sentry
And the wind for their abode.
Brian Howard
(Published in Harper's Magazine, 1952)
(Published in Harper's Magazine, 1952)
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