Charles Olsen

   1
At Yorktown the church
at Yorktown the dead
at Yorktown the grass
are live

           at York-town the earth
piles itself in shallows,
declares itself, like water,
by pools and mounds

   2
At Yorktown the dead 
are soil
at Yorktown the church
is marl
at Yorktown the swallows
diver where it is greenest,
                     
                                         the hollows
are eyes are flowers, the heather,
equally accurate, is hands

             at Yorktown only the flies
dawdle, like history,
in the sun

   3
at Yorktown the earthworks
braw
at Yorktown the mortars
of brass, weathered green, of mermaids
for handles, of Latin
for texts, scream
without a noise
like a gull

  4
At Yorktown the long dead
loosen the earth, heels
sink in, over an abatis
a bird wheels

and time is a shine caught blue
from a martin’s
back   

1953