Panel (a poem)

Panel

(W. W. I Engraving)

Why does the one heave between his shoulders

a sack full of bees, staggering under the  imperious din

of their queen, or is the infliction simply fatigue

which has laid down fully the one face up

while the others obey an obscure command, leaving

under the shaded blur of the tree the trench

which might actually be a grave, but no, this is wartime

a trench then, gaping but not a grave, the difference,

just timing or chance shaking blossoms

from a dogwood full of daylight in spring, the difference

mere words, yet how we name the dead, build the given:

poppy and love-letter, pepper, and neck-bone,

so the head might turn at mention of the far,

which as we know takes root finally, one way

or another, the distance which blossoms in the body at last:

wide shore, dazzling kingdom, a friend or an older brother

pausing ahead, still waiting to be caught up to. 


-Christopher Volpe