The town down the river

Chapter 27: THE WISE BROTHERS

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About This Book

A sequence of sombre, often ironic poems that portray isolated individuals and communal life through compact narratives and lyrical portraiture. The collection alternates longer sequences and standalone pieces to examine ambition, failure, memory, aging, and the persistence of imagination amid ordinary surroundings. Recurring observers address youth, dreamers, and the weather of fortune while imagery pairs domestic detail with stark solitude. Shifts between conversational monologue and formal meditation yield quiet tragedies, wry character sketches, and reflective meditations delivered in plain yet resonant language.

THE WISE BROTHERS

FIRST VOICE

So long adrift, so fast aground,

What foam and ruin have we found—

We, the Wise Brothers?

Could heaven and earth be framed amiss,

That we should land in fine like this—

We, and no others?

SECOND VOICE

Convoyed by what accursèd thing

Made we this evil reckoning—

We, the Wise Brothers?

And if the failure be complete,

Why look we forward from defeat—

We, and what others?

THIRD VOICE

Blown far from harbors once in sight,

May we not, going far, go right,—

We, the Wise Brothers?

Companioned by the whirling spheres,

Have we no more than what appears—

We, and all others?