Battle Report

W. R. MOSES

W. R. MOSES

BATTLE REPORT

In the general American war of earth against pavement

I report the cruel attrition in one small pocket

Where a road-wide column of asphalt sent on patrol

Across a field has been, by a zigzag of policy,

Declared expendible. New-planted metal posts

Cut it off. No longer is any supply possible.

Its mode of fight, of course, is to hug flat

Over the foe, to smother him. Not fully

Is earth smothered. Through certain dozens of flaws

In his hater's strength he has thinly, grimly forced

A stemless weed that, flat around every fissure,

Grips tight the gripper, as though the two were fused.

The asphalt looks like an old, enormous shell

Seized, this cranny and that, by green starfish.

They are small, but several. Cupped starfish strength

Sucks, sucks. It is presently checked by seasonal

Death. The shell will outwear any single

Counter-attacker. More will clutch it in spring.

Il