3/19/10

The Horses, by Edward Muir -- a poem that fans of post-apocalyptic fiction, in particular, should like lots

I don't often post straight poems, but this one I found recently is so very much on topic viz science fiction/fantasy that I wanted to share it. Also I liked it. It's by Edwin Muir (1887 – 1959), a poet from the Orkney Islands.

The Horses

Barely a twelvemonth after
The seven days war that put the world to sleep,
Late in the evening the strange horses came.
By then we had made our covenant with silence,
But in the first few days it was so still
We listened to our breathing and were afraid.
On the second day
The radios failed; we turned the knobs; no answer.
On the third day a warship passed us, heading north,
Dead bodies piled on the deck. On the sixth day
A plane plunged over us into the sea. Thereafter
Nothing. The radios dumb;
And still they stand in corners of our kitchens,
And stand, perhaps, turned on, in a million rooms
All over the world.

read the rest here

For more poetry, visit today's Poetry Friday Round-up at Some Novel Ideas!

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