APSINTHION

What did I do in the war?
Son, I watched a download bar
and drank the last thing in the house.
I ran the show on meshugaas
the way some ancient dynamo
we couldn't replace would only go
on walnut oil or cherry must.
My poems sucked. My guitar grew dust.

But when we heard the star would fall,
did we choose to die like sheep?
Hell no - we were men, and blessed to know the hour and place...I jest.
One by one we fell asleep
and that is how they found us all.

by Don PATERSON, in "LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS", Volume 37, Number 15, 30 July 2015

(photo taken from Internet; edited by Armando TABORDA)

(1st edition, 2015; 2nd edition, 2019)