To A Stiff-winged Grasshopper
As I unfolded its wings,
in examining it for the first time,
I forgot the war:
I thought I had discovered something. Then I discovered
That others, also, thought they had discovered something.
We stood like the snake swallowing its tail, comprising a ring.
Superstition forges rings
Of iron. A ring is the most extreme form
Of symbol. Rings mar
The symmetry of loyal regard: we philosophized:
And said we could not have been acts in anyone's ring.
Had it not been inevitable in the case of this thing.