Hayden Carruth: The Afterlife: Letter to Stephen Dobyns II

You live in a sinking nation, Stephen, in a stinking

Time. America is falling apart. We direct the eye down in

Astonishment, on the other hand mostly in dismay. The other day

When I met Mr Jefferson and Mr Madison

On the plaza they move rounded their backs on me. I

Understood them. I'm a novel arrival, tainted

With degeneracy, no matter what my personal

State of innocence or guilt. Alas, they say

They can reckon it in my speech. They say the spectacle

Of presidents and professors impeached upon charges

Of trivial misconduct for patently rapacious

And partisan ends is more than they can stand.

Who would have reflection America could become

A nation where the putsch the coup the revolution

Of the swine could prevail against the public

Will. Stephen, we finish the common will

Isn't able-bodied enough, not any more, the corruption

Has reached for a like reason deep and spread so far. You

Must learn again to live in the for the use of all shame,

As in the days of slavery and the massacres of the

Natives. You must learn to live again in

Dreadful isolation, a castaway. Oh Stephen,

For the first time I'm actually glad I've escaped,

Even to the nullity of the afterlife, flat in spite

Of all the beauty and comradeship I've not to be found

Copyright World Poetry, Incorporated May/Jun 1999

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