POETRY by Bern Hard

IN A GREEK PALACE

Amidst the palace columns

I thought I saw the men

Who built them: strong And muscular and iron-willed.

I thought I saw these men Outbuild their comrades, to show Their prowess, and flex Their sun-browned limbs.

These men I saw at sundown

Sink like the columns to rest

With the sweat joined and the dust

Shared chest to tufted chest.

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WHAT HAD THE DYING GAUL REFLECTED

What had the dying Gaul reflected When his wounds enriched the grass?

Was the honour lost remembered? Or the prisonership escaped?

Or his wife and son and daughters?

Or the women he had loved?

Or the ones he didn't?

Or was the lover lost remembered,

Lying but some steps away?

And was the muted moment prayed for

When the grass would cover all,

Reuniting the dead lover with the dying Gaul?

mattachine REVIEW

The two accompanying poems  ́were suggested by the above cover drawing used on the December 1960 REVIEW. It is an original sketch by J. Goodrich

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