{"id":80,"date":"2016-06-25T03:04:55","date_gmt":"2016-06-25T03:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mtls.wpcenter.io\/staging\/?p=80"},"modified":"2026-10-14T16:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:02:44","slug":"poetry-george-elliott-clarke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/poetry-george-elliott-clarke\/","title":{"rendered":"George Elliott Clarke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Repressed Transcript of The Berlin Conference (1884-85)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">French Republic (FR):&nbsp; Just now, Poe\u2019s raven threw itself blackly<br>\ngainst the window.<br>\nIts wings curdled the grey, noon light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kingdom of Portugal (KP):&nbsp; A grim sign!<br>\nPsychopaths love their slaughters<br>\nas much as actors love death scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FR:&nbsp; That\u2019s <em>War<\/em>:<br>\nEndlessly contagious and expansive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">German Federation (GF):&nbsp; A Treaty will prevent our navies<br>\npinking the ramshackle sea;<br>\nforestall soldiers and emperors<br>\nsuffering that choking-on-dust sensation that\u2019s dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Great Britain (GB):&nbsp; Uttered like a plutonic Plato<br>\nOr a Platonist Pluto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kingdom of Italy (IT):&nbsp; Our Embassy furnishes today\u2019s luncheon\u2014<br>\nlimoncello and lemon-flavoured salmon\u2014<br>\nplus pewter creamers from Naples<br>\nand a Capri of silver spoons<br>\nfor the coffee service later\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kingdom of Spain (KS):&nbsp; And we supply mescal from Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GB:&nbsp; The worm at the bottle\u2019s bottom<br>\nresembles an engorged maggot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IT:&nbsp; Italy commends Berlin\u2019s imperious architecture\u2014<br>\na comfy cocktail<br>\nof Baroque and Georgian and Gothic\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">United States (US):&nbsp; While we tipple this tongue-dazzling limoncello,<br>\nwe mustn\u2019t ignore the simultaneous business<br>\nof preventing the flowers of Africa<br>\nfrom becoming broken petals,<br>\ndue to the instinctive <em>Mischief<\/em> of empires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GB:&nbsp; But you Yanks bring a shotgun perspective,<br>\na gunboat vision,<br>\nto every single <em>Policy<\/em>.<br>\nConsequently, we note the irreparable disappearance<br>\nof Red Indian tribes from your Great Plains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">US:&nbsp; Your keen lenses must yet be foggy<br>\nwith blood spatter,<br>\nif you don\u2019t recall your massacres of brown Indians<br>\nat Lucknow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IT:&nbsp; Now arrives the situation of coffee<br>\nplus plum-coloured Amaro,<br>\nto help your parley reach the dove-cooing heaven of <em>Peace<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GF:&nbsp; What do we stymie here?<br>\nDeadly rats biting little black girls;<br>\nupside-down burials of African chiefs;<br>\nthe suitcase materialization<br>\nof Caucasian carpetbaggers,<br>\ndelivering Africans slumping corpses,<br>\nor squads of assassins forcing babes<br>\nto choke on their own kicked in teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KP:&nbsp; How awful that Spanish priests<br>\ntorched the Mayans\u2019 papyrus scriptures!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KS:&nbsp; There\u2019s always <em>Hypocrisy<br>\n<\/em>in Portuguese <em>Poesy<\/em>:<br>\nConsider Cam\u00f5es\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kingdom of Belgium (KB):&nbsp; Sun-incinerated Portugal<br>\nlikes green wine, Cam\u00f5es\u2019 leaves\u2014<br>\nhis leaves like peeled off toilet tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KP:&nbsp; Belgium should speak <em>sotto voce<br>\n<\/em>for your <em>Poetry<\/em> is paper currency,<br>\nwhat you rip out of Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KB:&nbsp; Better that than nickel-and-dime <em>Finance<\/em>,<br>\nthe ghastly customs of (Portuguese) <em>Poverty<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KP:&nbsp; Yes, we don\u2019t have a colony like The Congo,<br>\nwhere every child sports a necklace of leeches,<br>\nand maggots snuggle in assholes and eyeholes\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KB:&nbsp; Africa requires a lining of missionaries\u2019 footprints,<br>\nof men as fearless of becoming crocodile material<br>\nas moths are of diving <em>kamikaze<\/em> into candles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Japanese Empire (JE):&nbsp; As observers, we observe,<br>\nfrom our Asian purview,<br>\nthat Europe looks exactly like vultures,<br>\nwith flesh raining from open beaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">US:&nbsp; The sinister litters of Europe<br>\npractice honed <em>Dishonesty<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IT:&nbsp; Dante is our guide here.<br>\nEurope\u2019s Afric colonies to date mirror<br>\nhellish stewing in sulphur and flame,<br>\nrivulets of fire, a torrential blaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FR:&nbsp; On the sea bottoms, black bodies writhe\u2014<br>\nall gashed flesh and splintered bones,<br>\nA macabre porridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">JE:&nbsp; (Aside):&nbsp; Is <em>Whiteness<\/em> itself a dishonest <em>Complexion<\/em>,<br>\na perfidious <em>Complex<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GB:&nbsp; I shouldn\u2019t understand American <em>Charity<\/em>,<br>\nfor it always shields cynical genocides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IT:&nbsp; This is the era of Satan.<br>\nAll our maps reek of <em>Death<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KP:&nbsp; Poisonous winds propel the Belgian vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">US:&nbsp; Consumptive scrambling for scraps of Africa\u2014<br>\nall this ominous chewing\u2014<br>\nhas an aura of <em>Lust<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GF:&nbsp; Abandon such <em>Poetry<\/em>!<br>\nProhibit it!<br>\nEurope mustn\u2019t be a cathedral spewing fly larvae.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GB:&nbsp; The Yank rhetoric is, really,<br>\n\u201cBunkum, hokum, gobbledygook\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">KB:&nbsp; Must Britain be morbidly global?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GB:&nbsp; True <em>Diplomacy<\/em> rejects such bellicose diction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GF:&nbsp; We seek a midway between all-out (<em>Total<\/em>) <em>War<br>\n<\/em>and nothing-doing <em>Peace<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Guelph (Ontario) 29 <em>novembre<\/em>&nbsp; mmxv<br>\n&amp; Detroit (Michigan) 29 &amp; 30 <em>novembre<\/em> mmxv]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Apropos Nancy Cunard (ca. 1929)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Wind twangs through rigging, sifts through hair,<br>\nthwacks through canvas capping lifeboats.<br>\nSmoke, dark and silver, smacks against iron stars,<br>\nsmirches a half-ass moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ocean groans like a train.<br>\n(All roots are sea routes\u2014&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the roots and routes of rain.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can smell the bow slinging brine<br>\nas the liner jackknifes currents,<br>\nthis sable Atlantic whose ballast is lumps\u2014<br>\nclumps\u2014<br>\nof ice that seem to swoop up at us outta fog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Vast, silvery explosions of churn<br>\nat the stern.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cap\u2019n must exercise <em>Caution<\/em>,<br>\nif we\u2019re not to be spiked by broken glaciers,<br>\ndowncast in murk,<br>\nslid down to sea-bottom silt,<br>\nlike doomed, damned <em>Titanic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>II.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As Samuel Cunard\u2019s granddaughter\u2014<br>\nheiress to a shipping-line fortune,<br>\nit\u2019d be a right, ironic headline,<br>\nwere I to plunge to th\u2019ass of th\u2019Ethiopian Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But though I cross often from U.K.<br>\n(oh, the <em>Grief <\/em>that is England\u2019s shoreline)<br>\nto U.S. and back,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">though never pausing in Halifax<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">*<\/a>, Nova Scotia,<br>\nwhence Grampy Sammy hailed,<br>\nout that damp, clammy climate,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDecadent,\u201d I\u2019m no welcome descendant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>III.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>The scandal is:&nbsp; I\u2019ve been, I am,<br>\nengorged with <em>Blackness<\/em>\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My grandee clan protests my \u201cincisive filth.\u201d<br>\nBut our <em>Wealth<\/em> is an embalming miasma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My <em>Abundance<\/em> is Henry\u2014<br>\nHank\u2014Crowder\u2014<br>\n<em>Negro<\/em> saxophonist,<br>\njazzman,<br>\nwhose laughter burps claps of <em>Joy<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His lily-white \u201cconcubine\u201d<br>\n(as you may denominate me)\u2014<br>\nI find nothing iffy about us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Exasperatingly sensual,<br>\nHank is built like a god.<br>\nA voluntary \u201cNegress,\u201d<br>\nI feel guiltless, faultless <em>Joy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(<em>Treason<\/em> of <em>Love<\/em> is <em>Loneliness<\/em>.<br>\n<em>Porn<\/em> is <em>Comedy<\/em> of <em>Selfishness<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My peers cruise the ros\u00e9 Mediterranean,<br>\nsnap every amber horizon,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">but I love it when I suddenly feel<br>\na moth\u2019s uneven fluttering,<br>\nand Hank spills me belly down in silk,<br>\nthen kindly parts my spindly gams,<br>\nand feeds his \u201cebony aristocrat\u201d<br>\ninto my \u201civory guillotine,\u201d<br>\nand so we enter a bluesy, earthy Zion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aye, I feel like Lady Chatterley,<br>\nwhen Hank\u2019s fingers scurry over me,<br>\nand I yield instinctively,<br>\nwhile he, black groom, snorts,<br>\ntrampling down his white bride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We white women are asked to accept<br>\nspindly, cinematic boys,<br>\nas wan as light.<br>\nBut I prefer \u201cunpardonable <em>Carnality<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why should I back my clan\u2019s Krugerrand <em>Apartheid<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I <em>am<\/em> a sullen traitor<br>\nto my class and colour and church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>IV.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>High up now, a star smashes down.<br>\nThe vessel smacks through squalling, brawling wet\u2014<br>\nsalty perfume all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve known the salons of Paris\u2014<br>\nthe saloons of Paris (Texas),<br>\nthe swishy whores of London,<br>\nthe irritatingly greedy capitalists of London (Ontario)\u2014<br>\nall as heartless as a helmet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I thank heaven for a dark man<br>\nwho proves my true patrimony:<br>\n<em>Rutting<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now I traverse the pewter slew,<br>\nawaiting the moon-purging sun,<br>\nand to leave the curvaceous ocean<br>\nand cleave unto a different bucking<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">as Henry\u2019s \u201cHarlem bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lo!&nbsp; The see-through \u201cdusk of dawn\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Edmonton (Alberta) 28 <em>septembre<\/em> mmxii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">To All Historians (or \u201cThe Bastille Concerto\u201d<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref2\">*<\/a>)&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Julien Benda (1928)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You cite the pure-white statues of criminals\u2014<br>\nruffle-collared gangsters\u2014<br>\nCaucasoid murderers\u2014<br>\nConquistadors, quislings, clerks, kings\u2014<br>\nas untroubled, as untroubling\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But tethered to every throne<br>\nis a coffle of slaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you\u2019re honest intellectuals,<br>\nstrip Elizabeth I of her <em>Modesty<\/em>,<br>\nher spurious <em>Virginity<\/em>,<br>\nher hymen that\u2019s a cannibal\u2019s \u201ccherry on top,\u201d<br>\nher purple robes daubing floors mauve with blood\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Factual Shakespeare and sincere Spengler is Dantean:<br>\nJustifications for tides of tears and blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Peel off masks!&nbsp; Peel away camouflage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Historians, <em>Time<\/em> persecutes us,<br>\nfor you refuse to reveal<br>\nhow the Queen\u2019s velvet robes<br>\nwere purchased by the toddler\u2019s gang-rape,<br>\nor how \u201cLiberal\u201d Constitutions<br>\ncome across shit-stained<br>\nand blood-smeared<br>\nand smell like garbage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Too often, you stroke your own tongues,<br>\nor refuse to witness <em>Carnage<br>\n<\/em>and face up to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result?<br>\nMusso, Huey Long, Adolf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Funchal (Madeira) 18 <em>d\u00e9cembre<\/em> mmxv]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Mao Approaches Nanking&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Shanghai is smoggy crematoria,<br>\nblack-smoke factory smelters,<br>\nand bellies sprawling fetuses<br>\n(frozen, tragic fossils)\u2014<br>\nso blood curves against sidewalks\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thus, I stir up <em>The People<br>\n<\/em>so their blades strike landlords\u2014<br>\nand bankers\u2014<br>\nwith fiery result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I love seeing the slain bosses set forth<br>\nlike mackerel slanting from fish-hooks.<em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>II.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>Through winter shadows, overlapping cool\u2014<br>\nrippling frostiness of mountain snow\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">through labyrinths of white<br>\nor winter rainstorms\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">some of us wearing horses\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">we move like startled wings:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To tack over iced rivers\u2014<br>\nthose crackling fissures\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to rescue the carcass of Nanking\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>III.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>No longer rats amid rubble\u2014<br>\nwe\u2019re guerilla nomads\u2014<br>\n<em>pace<\/em> The Long March on short rations\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and now we inch toward incomparable <em>Light<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">despite cannibalism of our horses\u2014<br>\nwhenever necessary<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">or elucidation of <em>Shit<br>\n<\/em>(<em>Theory<\/em>)\u2014<br>\nwhenever mandatory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Nothing is as occult as <em>Eternity<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>J\u2019avance<\/em>\u2014<br>\na somber hombre, an umber hombre\u2014<br>\na Chinese bronze, khaki-clad Buddha\u2014<br>\nas intrusive and as intensive<br>\nas a tidal wave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>IV.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>The mountain snow equals a sugar\u2019d threshold\u2014<br>\nafter the deserts of dust-gilded flies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019m no devotee of <em>Doubt<\/em>\u2014<br>\nand no chainsaw dictator\u2014<br>\nno ghastly civil servant\u2014<br>\nbut will besiege and sack Beijing\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">tolerate gunfight gore\u2014<br>\nromantic <em>Carnage<\/em>\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">be a bull thundering like a locomotive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No other way to propitiate <em>Soldiery<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>V.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>We\u2019ve weathered <em>Sorrow<\/em> after <em>Sorrow<\/em>:<br>\nDeserts, hunger, icy plights, thirst, scorpions,<br>\nrounds of dread <em>Encirclement<\/em>, fire, bullets,<br>\nand leave our far-flung dead<br>\ndecorating hysterical maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our victories are aching stories.<br>\nWe win only as we succumb to bleeding\u2014<br>\nand only as the enemy is finally tiring of bleeding\u2014<br>\nand flits toward asylum (Formosa).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Kai-Shek\u2019s hogs must be electrocuted:<br>\nThe meddler must be cut down like Himmler!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>VI.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>After my troops have taken grass for bed,<br>\nor chewed daisies by the roots,<br>\nor slogged through furious sunlight,<br>\nor died, drowned in dozens, in avalanches,<br>\nor reached, at last, shadow-embalmed,<br>\nthe groaning sea,<br>\nwe are now the pacific governors\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What has our foe wrought?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Blown-up <em>Kindergartens<\/em> and fire-charred infants\u2014<br>\natrocities for the gullet,<br>\nplus the insane whoopee of machine-gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sight gored horses strewn across the plain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The New China\u2014<br>\nthe People\u2019s Republic\u2014<br>\nis founded upon<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the fathomless otherness<br>\nof the endless, useless dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Miami Beach (Florida) 21 &amp; 22 <em>f\u00e9vrier<\/em> mmxvi]<br>\n<em>&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--nextpage-->\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Du Bois Protests Italy\u2019s Assault on Ethiopia (1935)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNegroes [suffer] from <em>Nothingness<\/em>.\u201d<br>\n\u2014Gertrude Stein<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>I.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To see ugliness in Sade,<br>\nto feel ugliness in Eliot,<br>\nto hear ugliness in Pound,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>vis-\u00e0-vis<\/em> the ceaselessly droning, Latin quarters\u2014<br>\nThe Vatican, The Sorbonne\u2014<br>\nis to understand how arose<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">black-heart, black-shirt government<br>\nin a white-marble state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frost is bleak, Eliot frosty\u2014<br>\na fool gabbling Kitchen Dutch,<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">*<br>\n<\/a>prematurely ejaculating whimpers<br>\nabout \u201cthe world\u2019s end\u201d\u2014<br>\ni.e. the extinction of <em>Albion<\/em>\u2019s axiomatic, albescent <em>Supremacy<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s what Mussolini and Hitler symbolize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, Italians, agitated, shake swords at Selassie,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and now phalanxes go into abbatoirs\u2014<br>\nwhere scythes (half mandibles)<br>\nswing with the pendulum gravity<br>\nof Poe-<em>louche<\/em>, Poe-designed, horizontal guillotines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sky over Ethiopia is burnt-cork<br>\nbecause Musso\u2019s bomblets\u2014<br>\ncluster-clouds of poison gas\u2014<br>\nas radioactive as God\u2019s visage\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">blaze the dry-grass huts<br>\nand incinerate sleeping numbers\u2014<br>\ncharred characters\u2014<br>\nall human characteristics erased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Skin goes to boiling; it sloughs off the bones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deer-coloured Abyssinians\u2014<br>\ntawny, chestnut-tint Abyssinians\u2014<br>\ndie, but fight,<br>\nas indignant as pepper,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">launching spears <em>contra<\/em> machine-guns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Partial <em>Blame<\/em> for these pogroms?<br>\nPound!&nbsp; Yeats?&nbsp; Pound!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&amp; Eliot, though he\u2019s inapprehensible\u2014<br>\nan obscure War Criminal,<br>\ncamouflaged as an affable banker,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ol\u2019 Possum, obscenely smirking<br>\nas <em>History<\/em> advances its obituary<br>\nfor the final, free, African state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(No, I don\u2019t count Liberia as sovereign.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This clan of poets backs tacitly the Ku Klux Klan,<br>\nhopelessly lisping Christian irrelevancies,<br>\nor lustfully barking anthems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I could give up Shakespeare.<br>\nI\u2019ve given up on Pound.<br>\nI give away Eliot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Indifferent to killing,<br>\nthey license indifferent killing,<br>\ncroon unintelligible Eliot\u2019s asinine <em>Grief<\/em>,<br>\nhis fear that Spengler is Socrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>II.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh, the cruelty of the modern poets\u2014<br>\nto edit <em>History<\/em>,<br>\nblack-up or white-out consitutions,<br>\npaper over dark-dark hearts,<br>\nitalicize the globe as Europe\u2019s property,<br>\nand, in all, act as chaste as corpses!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Well, joint by joint,<br>\nthis is how the current monsters<br>\ngot pieced together:<br>\nall those elegies decrying<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Caucasian <em>Decay<\/em>, <em>Devolution<\/em>, <em>Decadence<\/em>,<br>\nthe downward trajectory of post-Darwin,<br>\nanimalistic <em>Theology<\/em>,<br>\nthe tantrums of anthems\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">all became instruction manuals<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">for surplus police stations,<br>\nJudas legislatures,<br>\narsonist parliaments,<br>\nthe actual wreckage of Versailles<br>\nand the castration of the League of Nations,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and <em>Poetry<\/em> gone to <em>Odium<\/em> and <em>Ordure<\/em>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">with Sadean governors<br>\nconstructing Machiavellian prison-camps,<br>\nRasputin palaces,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and according fresh maiming,<br>\nnew <em>Mayhem<\/em>,<br>\nto Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>III.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Plunge into the dark abyss of the Occidental classroom,<br>\nwhere chalk eclipses <em>Blackness<\/em>,<br>\nsquawking,<br>\nand <em>Reason<\/em> vanishes<br>\ninto either foggy <em>Erasure<br>\n<\/em>or swirls of smudged figures,<br>\nsquealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here\u2019s where scribblers, in training for <em>Music<\/em>,<br>\nget torn up,<br>\ntrying to score <em>Deutschland<br>\n<\/em>Dixieland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>IV.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I recall 1929\u2014<br>\nthe routine swarm of bankers<br>\nleaping out Manhattan skyscrapers\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to make a big splash,<br>\nbellyflops, ruddy\u2014<br>\nafter turning investment portfolios<br>\ninto sieves of red ink.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Economic History<\/em> is <em>Ado<\/em> and <em>fuss<\/em>\u2014<br>\nAdolf versus Dreyfuss\u2014<br>\nthe 20<sup>th<\/sup> century bled into by the 19<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Indeed, Victoria mothered an Empire of Rippers\u2014<br>\nimperialists, promiscuous capitalists\u2014<br>\npermitting child labour as a form of sex-work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No wonder the theologians can\u2019t explain<br>\nVersailles or Ethiopia:<br>\nThey are still investigating Golgotha\u2014<br>\nand the unanswerable torching of Alexandria\u2019s Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am sure of this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Musso and Adolf will die<br>\nto get swallowed up<br>\nin the glittering enigma<br>\nof Napol\u00e9on\u2019s sarcophagus\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">for there\u2019s no other hiding place for their ilk\u2014<br>\nnor for their Lilliputian legislators\u2014<br>\nnot even in opaque smoke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Besides, they believe they will mirror&nbsp;<br>\nNapol\u00e9on\u2019s baroque failure\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">if not Caesar\u2019s conquests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Ottawa (Ontario) 15 <em>janvier<\/em> mmxvii<br>\n&amp; Whitehorse (Yukon Territory) 18 <em>janvier<\/em> mmxvii]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Notes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">*<\/a> Pidgin English.<br>\n<a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">*<\/a> In Haligonian cemeteries, <em>the Titanic<\/em> graves\u2014<br>\nso miniscule\u2014<br>\nmultitudinous marbles\u2014<br>\nstill are laid out like store-shelf items\u2014<br>\nlots of dainties for earthworms\u2019 palates.<br>\n<a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn2\">*<\/a> Cf. X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Repressed Transcript of The Berlin Conference (1884-85)<\/strong><br \/>\nFrench Republic (FR):  Just now, Poe\u2019s raven threw itself blackly<br \/>\ngainst the window.<br \/>\nIts wings curdled the grey, noon light.\/<br \/>\nKingdom of Portugal (KP):  A grim sign!<br \/>\nPsychopaths love their slaughters<br \/>\nas much as actors love death scenes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2143,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2495,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/2495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mtls.ca\/issue22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}