A FRESCO FOR A.
MAC
lEISH
They are all dead: our reaching hands half a century long
Cannot restore them: a heap of bones there: a buffalo's whitened skull:
A buried tomahawk boys dig in a lost cave in the mountains:
A rusted wagon wheel with no spokes rottirig in the sand in the sun:
These remain: these they left us:
What shall we restore
Restoring them? Those stuffers of animal skins:
The museum men with field glasses: the bone-lovers:
The scientific ghouls: they stiffen the corpses:
They fix the representative stance: the correct pose: the historic gesture:
These antiques inspire memories not
~ad:
not without glory:
They pushed back mountains:
they
took plains in their stride:
Their. homesteads peopled a continent: their sons are with us:
Not the museum: the sunburnt face is .produced with
A little lacquer: it is a fine art: children are
impres~ed:
Also hollywood directors:
Abide with me awhile: there are always pioneers:
They are saddling new horses: buckling the cinches: waving goodbye:
\Vho's going along? they're saying out there there's new lands yonder:
Paths to be broken: and those higher mountains: new divides: new
frontiers:
They resemble the old: but they're different: and they speak all langLlagcs.
ALFRED HAYES
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