Atlas
by ELFORD CAUGHEY
BECAUSE I did not turn when it was time to turn,
Because when there was need to speak I had no word.
Because I saw man’s agony without concern,
Was deaf to murmurs though I knew, and heard,
The weight of all the world is on my shoulders now.
The weight of all the world has brought me to my knees —
Beneath the cities, hills, and mountain peaks I bow,
My spine is taut beneath the burden of the seas.
I hear planes hum like insect swarms around my head,
And thunder rolling east and west, the old world shaking;
The cries of men I scorned, litanies for t he dead.
What curse prevents this heart of flint from breaking — breaking?
From this dread burden not I nor any will be free,
And as the weight of snow piled on a hemlock hough
Will bend, then snap the limb and so deform the tree,
I sink beneath the world’s weight crushing down upon me now.
Because when there was need to speak I had no word.
Because I saw man’s agony without concern,
Was deaf to murmurs though I knew, and heard,
The weight of all the world is on my shoulders now.
The weight of all the world has brought me to my knees —
Beneath the cities, hills, and mountain peaks I bow,
My spine is taut beneath the burden of the seas.
I hear planes hum like insect swarms around my head,
And thunder rolling east and west, the old world shaking;
The cries of men I scorned, litanies for t he dead.
What curse prevents this heart of flint from breaking — breaking?
From this dread burden not I nor any will be free,
And as the weight of snow piled on a hemlock hough
Will bend, then snap the limb and so deform the tree,
I sink beneath the world’s weight crushing down upon me now.