Page:Battle-retrospect, and other poems - Wilder - 1923.djvu/25

 A blight has fallen on the fecund globe,

A drop of poison on the human hive,

And on the swarming ant-hill where men drive

Their myriad pursuits

Some god as though to harass

Their labour turns his flaming burning-glass.

The withering blasts of some Olympian curse

The teeming clans disperse,

And breeds an ill in nature; a consuming rust

Mildews the wholesome grain; a cankerous spot

Is in earth's globèd fruit,

A leprosy that eats the planet's crust,

A gangrene and a rot.

2.

How can we walk the same earth, undisturbed,

Breathe the identical air, indifferent,

And gaze on the same stars with alien thought?

How, unperturbed,

Gather the fruits the impartial seasons pour

Nor share impartially the general store?

Will Strangers from another planet sent

Succour the Kin that we ignore?

Will other worlds supply the need that we neglect?

Shall we expect

Some heavenly Samaritan to do aught

If we of the terrestrial clan

And holy Nation, Man,

Avert our eyes

With sophistries

And flee the scene nor call it into mind?

Lo, these co-heritors with us of life!

Than which all else is surmise, these who share

This one indubitable fact, to be aware!

To drink the light, to feel, to breathe the air,

This one indubitable fact outlined

Upon the enveloping dark. 19