fallslikesnow

(An Old Persian Legend) to C. E. H. It started with a stabbing at a well Below the minarets of Isfahan. The widow took her son to see them kill The officer who'd murdered her old man. The child looked up and saw the hangman's work -- The man who'd killed his father swinging high, The mother said: 'My child, now be at peace. The wolf has had the fruits of all his crime.' From felony to felony to crime From robbery to robbery to loss From calumny to calumny to spite From rivalry to rivalry to zeal All this was many centuries ago -- The kind of thing that couldn't happen now -- When Persia was the empire of the Shah And many were the furrows on his brow. The peacock the symbol of his throne And many were the jewels and its eyes And many were the prisons in the land And many were the torturers and spies. From tyranny to tyranny to war From dynasty to dynasty to hate From villainy to villainy to death From policy to policy to grave The...

The lizard on the wall, engrossed, The sudden silence from the wood Are telling me that I have lost The possibility of good. I know this flower is beautiful And yesterday it seemed to be, It opened like a crimson hand. It was not beautiful to me. I know that work is beautiful. It is a boon. It is a good. Unless my working were a way Of squandering my solitude. And solitude was beautiful When i was sure that I was strong. I thought it was a medium In which to grow, but I was wrong. The jays are swearing in the wood. The lizard moves with ugly speed. The flower closes like a fist. The possibility recedes. by James Fenton