4991. NOBODY TALKS ABOUT QUICKSAND ANY MORE

NOBODY TALKS ABOUT 

QUICKSAND ANY MORE

Instead we stand the metal in the corner, the easel

 in the middle of the room, and go on talking while the 

model disrobes and simply sits there, even before the 

charcoal crayons have been given out.

This is no way to end an armistice, 

I'd swear before a court of law.

-

Wars have been started before. Names have come

down through the ages; all that Helen of Troy and 

Cleopatra stuff, but it all winds up twisted 

and lame. I no longer know where to stand,

nor sit  -  reading history books by candlelight;

what a fit this all is for words that will  live,

as they say, in infamy.

-

I worked ten years in a harbor-side port, saw

men killed by their crushing burdens. I sent

men away  -   the bored and the brained  -

on riverbed cruises and seas to distant lands.

Crossing Africa, on foot, so many were mauled

by natives that no one ever said a word. But

things are so different nowadays : nobody

talks about quicksand anymore.