Testimonies Poem by Weldon Kees

“Others at their porches ...”

1.
“I baited bears and prayed. The Queen
Grew inky on Boethius. Between
The angels and the animals we lived and died.
The sun, the King, and my own being blazed as one.
I spoke occasionally to God.”

2.
“I circumcise my son and laud
The covenant. The massacres go on.
And now, plunder, expulsion. Poisoned fountains drown
The Synagogue. Blood stains the font;
The staff breaks toward the desert in my hands.”

3.
“I did not see the Grail. Sir John
Lay dying at the bridge. When barbers cut away
Those spongy growths from the poor soldiers’ gums,
The whole camp echoed with our cries.
I place the cauldron of God’s wrath upon the coals.”

4.
“I watch the world contract to this
Gray winter Grub Street where the scavengers
Drop in the cold. The famine spreads more every day.
God save the King, the Army, and the House of Lords!
The rags fall from my arms outside the coffee-house.”

5.
“I live. The Elevated shudders to a stop
At Twenty-Eighth and Third. Among
The nuns and crippled Negroes, we descend
The stairway to the street, to red-cheeked chromo Christ,
Hung with the bloody calves’ heads in the butcher shop.”