Five Poems

At Great Tew
thinking of Cary, Viscount Falkland (1610-43)

…and would passionately profess that the very agony of the
war took his sleep from him and would shortly break his
heart. He was weary of the times, he said, but would be out of
it ere night.'

i
As he could not heal his country's disease,
he longed for death. Dressing himself cleanly
as one going to a banquet, he drew the flap
and stepped into the tented field. An army
stirred, and small fires through the morning mist
blossomed. A nervous boy
fidgeted fingertips on the war drum.

He stands and gazes. The morning light
gathers like elegance at wrist and neck.
...