Weldon Kees

Here you will find the Poem Testimonies of poet Weldon Kees

Testimonies

?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.?