Poems
IN EUROPE
(to Elie)
recitative for a radio play
Three Voices to the accompaniment of a drum and bells, and
the faint grunt and thud of a dancing-bear.
Man
The frontiers at last. I am feeling so tired.
We are getting the refugee habit,
Woman
Moving from island to island,
Where the boundaries are clouds,
Where the frontiers of the land are water.
Old Man
We are getting the refugee habit.
Woman
We are only anonymous feet moving,
Without friends any more, without books,
Or companionship any more. We are getting
Man
The refugee habit. There's no end
To the forest and no end to the moors:
Between the just and the unjust
There is little distinction,
Old Man
Bodies like houses, without windows and doors:
Woman
The children have become so brown,
Their skins have become dark with sunlight.
Man
They have learned to eat standing.
