THE STATE OF POETRY
The
Horse
Did
Not Come Back
T he horse did not come back,
his horse did not come back .
All the other horses have come back.
The horse
of our good ma n ,
who was fa ther in our house
to a little son
with a tuft of ha ir
like a plume on a steed ,
it did no t come back.
H as it fal len now,
his horse
th at bore him through battle,
has it fallen
like the great tree
standing at the meeting place
of two rive rs?
- Erumai Veliya!}ar
519
W . S.
MERWIN