11/01

this river has seen this fire before
the blooded explosion along both banks
of dead red leaves that wreathe the water
running wide and slow and somehow still blue
this fall’s long crawl from summer’s sudden end

the hudson has heard this war before
the shout of cannon on the palisades
and of men long lost in rivers of blood
that run back and back and run on still
on this endless march to our death of death

2001