248
PARTISAN REVIEW
Eve Merriam
SAVANNAH GEORGIA
Rages you and I feel every day
gorging to gouge the weak
;1re given in this lush land carte-blanche crazy play.
-Where
colored
does not refer to gushing rainbow
daily descendant sun
or Fourth of July pyrotechnic show.
Could live here tourist all one's life and more,
bounded by winterless warm,
plump shrimp, deliberate palm-tree decor;
chain gangs no more frequent than frequent hurricane
blasting only a little:
garden, chimney at most ruined by the rain.
Disease wears a monocle of glittering nature:
swampscape useless as cigarette ash,
but showy, the syphilitic full-dress peer.
Atmosphere is two weeks after war-end.
Though none has been declared,
and nothing but injustice to defend.
But there is that skeptic overweary air
extending from vast
master-bedroom to narrow butler-stair;
and the slot machines everywhere, like the butter-rotting flies,
no one hoping to win.
Not even the boneless adolescent eyes.
A lever clinks: up comes the usual blank.
Almost relieved,
return to slump in chair and suck in sweetcheat drink.
