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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!tektronix!reed!houts
From: houts@reed.UUCP (Bill Houts)
Newsgroups: net.poems
Subject: Ragnorak
Message-ID: <1022@reed.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 1-Mar-85 03:01:26 EST
Article-I.D.: reed.1022
Posted: Fri Mar  1 03:01:26 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Mar-85 07:14:02 EST
References: <1021@reed.UUCP>
Reply-To: houts@reed.UUCP (PUT YOUR NAME HERE)
Organization: Reed College, Portland, Oregon
Lines: 44
Summary: 


Five foot two with singed hair
and arms like white broomsticks-- 
a Viking still;
you could weave in guitar strings
song to catch whales.

Jarl and juggler:
your laughter was ours, 
round and sharp as oranges.
You rode to catch winters of fire,
and we rode to follow           
over bridges of your making.

Not for you that gunshot gasp,
those tears at 2 A.M.
Not for you the bad news of sudden,
dark heels on an early doorstep.
No.

A Viking god unravels rather,
his strident voice runs reedy, 
sounding horns of ruin.
Articulate fingers mumble and fret;
it is come, the end,
complete as the breaking of stone. 

For us it is no small thing, 
to stand on the last bridge and weep.
We toss wreathes         
woven of flowers and guilt
on a friendship that died when
the Serpent bit your skull.

-- 

Bill Houts
(a.k.a. Captain Chaos)
Cosmic Color Control 
tektronix!reed!houts

"I claim to be the Kleenex reborn."