Grant him at the end his common humanity.
His was the conquering step, he, the athlete,
The proud one who came with the Spring marching
The valley under, swaggering, counting the native daughters
For the Imperial purpose. His eyes were the haughty eyes:
The words from the speaker’s box had given him destiny
Thundering across the marketplace. And the deceived human
impulse
Believed, ritual gave him purpose, honor’s name drew him.
For love of the powerful motion he believed, quickened, came
Marching the valley under, he, the athlete, the proud one.
Under the new flag’s given symbol of glory
The ranked boots pummeled in unison
The uncomprehending soil. The physical acres
Mudded indifferently with the many heel prints.
He was one of many in the anonymous ranks
Turning the bright fragments of memory as he marched:
The blonde girl, the Leader’s thrilling gesture, the words
Of the orator’s promise electrifying his spine,
The dream of heroes. Weight of rifle on his bruised shoulder
Invented manhood to him. The forward action was glory.
Now his unmotivated corpse embraces
The looted country. The scattered defenders
Loosed one random bullet grooved with his destiny
And he joins their defeat. Fatherland is here now,
This ditch in the raped country. His body counts it
More surely than the changed map. Victory’s
Expanding boundary incloses him. Ahead
In the valley, summer answers the conquering step,
And autumn, and winter, but in this country
His simplified body dreams one season only.
Grant pity this much: that he was young as whatever boy
The blonde girl loved, and he came laughing to this valley
In the believed armor of purpose. Frame for his anonymous
And tangled flesh the order of a separate name,
And identity creates his tragedy. Grant him at the end
His common humanity, And turn to face the terror of his seed:
He, the athlete, the proud one, the quick-paced, he, the conqueror
For the gesture’s sake, has served Attila before this
And the later Vandals, and for a hot word in the marketplace
Would have pockmarked the earth with his bullets, in honor’s
name.
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