“Men coming and going on the earth” ~ Rupert Brooke
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
Men come and go in love and death beside
The heart and in our beds: the red-haired ones
With that strange skin and with that emerald-eyed
Possession taking us, the Irish sons
Of people who would shudder if they knew.
These strangely colored men lurch inside us,
Possessing hearts. And then come eyes of blue
That stare at partners as they hunch and cuss—
And then they exit. Next come brown and black
Eyes, laughing, crying, doing those few things
That men are useful for. When men go slack,
We wonder why we thought that they wings.
..Men come and go. We wish that they were dead
….When we have finished, black, blond, brown, and red.
~ Phillip Whidden