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  • Lest…
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Lest…

Vincent O'Sullivan

Each time the bugle shimmers
the dead, we like to fancy, stir a little.
We care for them still. They matter.
The shrill of threaded brass through
the autumn morning, the river-mist
rising, our breath plumes regret,
the school choir blowing into their hands.
It’s a long time, we know, but they are
remembered, they are.
‘Don’t put yourselves
to such trouble, ’ – kindly, the dead voices.
‘They make so little difference, the brass,
the tears. Can’t you leave us be?’ Yet
the sergeant’s holler insisting, the rifles’
curt salute, their volley racketing
downstream. Lest we. Lest we. . . .
‘Lest we know we are actually dead,
Is that your point?’


Vincent O'Sullivan

Reprinted by kind permission of the poet.

Tags:

duty ghosts musical instruments remembrance the dead World War I
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Vincent O'Sullivanb.1937

Vincent O'Sullivan was born in Auckland in 1937. He has published many collections of poetry -- winning the Montana NZ Book Award for poetry in 1999 and 2005 -- as well as novels, short stories, plays, essays, and biography....
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