[752] Overheard In An Asylum

And here we have another case
quite different from the last,
another case quite different --
Listen.

  Baby, drink.
  The war is over.
  Mother's breasts
  are round with milk.

  Baby, rest.
  The war is over.
  Only pigs
  slop over so.

  Baby, sleep.
  The war is over.
  Daddy's come
  with a German coin.

  Baby, dream.
  The war is over.
  You'll be a soldier
  too.

Yes, we gave her the doll --
Now there we have another case
quite different from --

  	-- Alfred Kreymborg

Notes: The bit I indented was italicised in the original. The war in quetion
is WW1; the poem is from his 1916 collection 'Mushrooms'.

Today's quietly chilling poem is all the more effective for its utter lack
of commentary. The language is simple and understated, a fact that detracts
nothing from the vividness of the image. I really don't want to say too much
about the poem - it has very little problem speaking for itself.

Links:

We've run a couple of Kreymborg's poems:

  poem #306: Geometry
  poem #245: Whitman

His biography can be found at poem #245

-martin