POEMS
Richard Eberhart
STONE FENCE
They are sitting on a stone fence by a mall.
They have the youth and good looks of the mid-twenties.
Beside them rises a new building of brick and steel.
The jack hammers have just ceased making a big noise.
They seem innocent, adequate, and are certainly childless.
They do not look at each other with fervor or supplication.
They look as if they took life for granted, were sure
Of the langorous hills surrounding the old town.
A zealot who is totally alive to reality,
Aware of an election coming up almost at once,
Seeing these extravagantly detached lollers,
Asks them why they do not go next door and vote.
A citizen should vote for one side or another,
Take sides, be active, know what the world is doing.
They looked blissful sitting on a stone fence,
These young people went on munching candy bars.
These two were as it were out of history,
They did not seem to take part in the system,
You knew they would get up and drive or walk home
Without the slightest knowledge of the fall of Rome.
David Lehman
GALLERY NOTES
The title doesn't have to have
anything to do with what
Is depicted: "Dance You Monster
