Dire Coasts by John Clellon Holmes

Author:John Clellon Holmes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

THE PREMATURE BABIES’ WARD, PETROGRAD, SPRING, 1918

Along the walls, deep down in small cots, their stern eyes wide open, lie silent midgets...

— Isaac Babel

Under the mammoth heads,

frail webs of rib,

the bird-hearts beat—

the Revolution eight months in.

"We arm ourselves against their accusation.

We are the Revolution, sympathy’s our flaw. Good engineers, we asphalt over it.

"Their tomorrow will be cabbages with cream. Meanwhile, shrivelled teats must do.

One day the millions will take sustenance this hunger buys. It’s simple dialectics.

"Peace, bread and land, we say.

Foregone as spring in March, we say.

And even if it orphans all the land,

even if the bread’s expropriated, even if our peace is rifle butts, do not disturb us, we are building.

"Children, comrades, infant soldiers, famine sows the future! Wait!”

The wet nurse wolfs her 3 / 8th ounce of bread, the silent midgets watch her—out of time.

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