Overheard In An Asylum -- Alfred Kreymborg

(Poem #752) Overheard In An Asylum And here we have another case quite different from the last, another case quite different -- Listen. Baby, drink. The war is over. Mother's breasts are round with milk. Baby, rest. The war is over. Only pigs slop over so. Baby, sleep. The war is over. Daddy's come with a German coin. Baby, dream. The war is over. You'll be a soldier too. Yes, we gave her the doll -- Now there we have another case quite different from -- -- Alfred Kreymborg

Notes: The bit I indented was italicised in the original. The war in quetion
is WW1; the poem is from his 1916 collection 'Mushrooms'.

Today's quietly chilling poem is all the more effective for its utter lack
of commentary. The language is simple and understated, a fact that detracts
nothing from the vividness of the image. I really don't want to say too much
about the poem - it has very little problem speaking for itself.

Links:

We've run a couple of Kreymborg's poems:

  poem #306: Geometry
  poem #245: Whitman

His biography can be found at poem #245

-martin