"Brief Requiem for the Twentieth Century" by Gary Hardaway

Brief Requiem for the Twentieth Century

We move without rhythm across a dying land,
Revolving in broken circles around the shifting
Axes of our numerous gods, our gods
Demanding sacrificial offerings
Of our humanity yet giving us
No water in return but only vast
Chrome plated blight. The crumbling meccas
gnaw
Each fiscal year's quota of blood and bone,
Of flesh and fingernails, then belch from
Their towering crematorium smokestacks
Black clouds of smoke- the final strokes
Of a thousand lives of insignificant toil.

When all is stilled and circling vultures light,
Dry bones will make their final meal
As our last remnants vanish into night.

ca 11.01.1970

Gary V. Powell, Jul 30, 2014

"The crumbling meccas
gnaw
Each fiscal year's quota of flesh and blood..." A good today as back then.(

Amanda Harris, Jul 30, 2014

I think you had the best first poem out of all of us. Still reminds me of "Dover Beach" though-especially the ending.*

Sam Rasnake, Jul 30, 2014

A great and dark beginning.

Mathew Paust, Jul 30, 2014

Eliotian. *

Jake Barnes, Jul 31, 2014

Made me think of Yeats. Brrr. *

Ann Bogle, Aug 02, 2014

This poem has the voice of a Gary Hardaway poem. The significance of voice is the single most interesting discovery so far in looking at first published poems in Line Cook. Thanks for sharing and posting, Gary. As for the significance of awaiting the end, and patience, it reminds me of Psalm 25, in which waiting for death is a joyful and lifelong pursuit of the faithful. I do not wish to superimpose a Bible reading of your poem, however. Your voice grasps the depths of life and death. *