first line from Kenneth Patchen’s “Pastoral” in Poems of Humor and Protest (1956) The Dove walks with sticky feet upon a twig inadequately limed; adjusts its collar, smooths its pale-grey surplice, and puffs out its chest (a row of medals jingles; one is twisted, and the sharp point of a star jabs through its plumage — see a single scarlet bubble well, and catch the light of signal flares). On outspread wings it glides from olive tree to bronze peaked cap, where it anoints the craggy face that sent – heroically – a thousand thousand children to their deaths and to the deaths of millions more. Then turning, it bestows another pure white blessing on the holstered gun. The mess is over, go in peace.
"The Dove walks with sticky feet"
From a sequence, "Pocket Lights", each starting with the first line of a poem from a City Lights "Pocket Poets" volume
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