DID I see a crucifix in your eyes
and nails and Roman soldiers
and a dusk Golgotha?
Did I see Mary, the changed woman,
washing the feet of all men,
clean as new grass
when the old grass burns?
Did I see moths in your eyes, lost moths,
with a flutter of wings that meant:
we can never come again.
Did I see No Man’s Land in your eyes
and men with lost faces, lost loves,
and you among the stubs crying?
Did I see you in the red death jazz of war
losing moths among lost faces,
speaking to the stubs who asked you
to speak of songs and God and dancing,
of bananas, northern lights or Jesus,
any hummingbird of thought whatever
flying away from the red death jazz of war?
Did I see your hand make a useless gesture
trying to say with a code of five fingers
something the tongue only stutters?
did I see a dusk Golgotha?
(Carl Sandburg)
More Poetry from Carl Sandburg:
Carl Sandburg Poems based on Topics: Man, Woman, Faces, War & Peace, Dancing, Cry, Jesus Christ, Speaking, Mind, Thought & Thinking- And This Will Be All.... (Carl Sandburg Poems)
- And So To-Day (Carl Sandburg Poems)
- To A Contemporary (Carl Sandburg Poems)
- A Father To His Son (Carl Sandburg Poems)
- Arithmetic (Carl Sandburg Poems)
- California City Landscape (Carl Sandburg Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, Mind Poems, War & Peace Poems, Faces Poems, Cry Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Jesus Christ Poems, Woman Poems, Speaking Poems, Dancing PoemsBased on Keywords: bananas, golgotha, crucifix, hummingbird, stubs, stutters
- The Wild Knight (Gilbert Keith Chesterton Poems)
- Alma; or, The Progress of the Mind. In Three Cantos. - Canto II. (Matthew Prior Poems)
- Hermann And Dorothea - VI. Klio (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Poems)
- The Traveller; or, A Prospect of Society (Oliver Goldsmith Poems)
- A Story Of Plantagenet (Nora Pembroke Poems)