CAESAR’S LAST BREATH
by MICHAEL SALCMAN
Caesar’s Last Breath
—Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)
On the Ides of March, great Caesar stabbed to death
by friends, expelled his final breath
in exclamation, an accusation I’m forced to share
by Fermi’s calculation each time I respire in joy or despair
an atom of the cry my Mother gave in giving me birth
or later, my Father’s shout at exchanging the earth
beneath our feet, from blooded Old World to New.
What holds the star-winged atoms of our bones but the glue
of universal speech, the pneuma of life?
Each day exchanges the oxygen of kings with child and wife,
the lips of long gone fiends exclaim with those in doubt
or pray in unison with the most devout.
Less a calculus of breath than perverted fate
how often we exhale love and fill our lungs with hate.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Verses on Sir Joshua Reynold’s Painted Window at New College, Oxford by Thomas Warton
- Manure by Mark R Slaughter
- good bye, my sweet angel by Raj Arumugam
- I Sit and Look Out. by Walt Whitman
- Алексей Николаевич Толстой – Егорий, волчий пастырь
- Robert Burns: The Farewell To the Brethren of St. James’ Lodge, Tarbolton:
- Sabbath, My Love poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster
- Pharaohs, Protests and Public by Sunil Sharma
- Василий Курочкин – Раздумье
- So You Say by Mark Strand
- Epigram on the said Occasion by Robert Burns
- Владимир Высоцкий – Наши добрые зрители
- Robert Burns: Raving Winds Around Her Blowing: I composed these verses on Miss Isabella M’Leod of Raza, alluding to her feelings on the death of her sister, and the still more melancholy death of her sister’s husband, the late Earl of Loudoun, who shot himself out of sheer heart-break at some mortifications he suffered, owing to the deranged state of his finances.-R.B., 1971.
- Lord when the wise men came from farr by Sidney Godolphin
- Stones
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
