James Wright

Here you will find the Poem A Mad Fight Song For William S. Carpenter, 1966 of poet James Wright

A Mad Fight Song For William S. Carpenter, 1966

Varus, varus, gib mir meine Legionen wieder


Quick on my feet in those Novembers of my loneliness, 
I tossed a short pass, 
Almost the instant I got the ball, right over the head 
Of Barrel Terry before he knocked me cold. 


When I woke, I found myself crying out 
Latin conjugations, and the new snow falling 
At the edge of a green field. 


Lemoyne Crone had caught the pass, while I lay 
Unconscious and raging 
Alone with the fire ghost of Catullus, the contemptuous graces tossing 
Garlands and hendecasyllabics over the head 
Of Cornelius Nepos the mastodon, 
The huge volume. 


At the edges of Southeast Asia this afternoon 
The quarterbacks and the lines are beginning to fall, 
A spring snow, 


And terrified young men 
Quick on their feet 
Lob one another?s skulls across 
Wings of strange birds that are burning 
Themselves alive.