Vol. 9 No. 1 1942 - page 60

60
PARTISAN REVIEW
learned, exact, and in a way
magnificent, but after all play, a
prepara-
tion rather than the essential
life of sheep-dumb, but theirs and real.
Lionel Abel
THE IMMIGRANTS
Chagga, Arunta, Bata, Barabong.
Prompt and equipped with human vanity,
All sociologists, we go among
These nervous immigrants to humanity.
They missed the boat. Why did they miss it? Laws
Demented. Quotas. And they killed their great.
Amazed by blue they stayed. Because, because
Run over by a lion. Or just late.
Oh how could they make durable delay
Without book, kodak, Sunday supplement?
-Long before bowbend, singing string, or lasso–
What could they do but while epochs away,
Poor past folk breaking time in two? They spent
Their human substance. Talking to Picasso.
WHAT OF THE CHAIN REMAINS
0 find him! find him! find that Jack of Jacks,
That necessary monster! Where is he
Who can absolve us of monstrosity?
He who can tuck a tail between his teeth
Struck with the mystery of words, he who can talk
Of a thick coil and comfort in the dark;
That mystic animal, that cross between
A brother who can climb on branching words,
A wordless brother tailed among the trees.
I...,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59 61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,...96
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