Poems (Tree)/Tranquillity Stirred by a Sudden Spasm

by Iris Tree

TRANQUILLITY stirred by a sudden spasm,Knives of rain that cut the silence,Storms that rattle the bones of the forest,Calm of the marble-terraced nightCharred with the spattering of rockets.

Drums will I hear and battles now,And the long death howl of wolves by night,Watching the moon on the forest tops,Walking with delicate frightened stepsTo the slaughter-house of a red sunrise.

1918