II

Fought on ten years
after the war was lost. . . .
butchery now,
meaningless. . . . meaningless. . . .
the country far gone. . . .
no new ideas. . . .
no way out. . . .
floating belly up,
the eyes gone white.

Suddenly up shot
from the general mood
anonymous young officers,
crack cadres,
burst from the orbit of Marx
into Headquarters
and broke the jaw
of the old Jefe .
All Utopia broke loose then.
The soldiers
marched down the street
smiling and waving at the people,
gun barrels upright,
in each a carnation.
And the people joined the march:
into history!
Solemn Tall
Up to them now.
Then they broke up
into jubilant groups.
The children joined hands
and danced in a circle
and the men became
congratulating bears,
hugging and slapping
each other on the back.
One climbed a tree
and crowed like a cock,
another stood upright,
a squirrel, and munched
imaginary acorns.
And the crowd laughed.
So sweet their feeling for each other!
Would they not bask in it forever?
They were all men.
They started from there.
It was incumbent, therefore,
to be generous and gentle.
Why had they been willing
to settle for a beer and a woman?

That night they walked the streets,
thinking,
" How great man could be! "
And two weeks later
went on strike
against the new order:
chemical workers, steel workers,
government workers,
printers, textile workers.
Suspicious again.
Out of patience.

At the entrance to the Government Building
a utopian guard lounged
in a cocked beret,
pistol canted.
" Why don't they do something useful? "
grumbled
the old civil servant
" Let 'em grow tomatoes! "

And so it went
into the next generation.