The Grandfathers by Donald Justice
I do live in the country now, but I haven’t yet met any of these grandfathers.
The Grandfathers
By Donald Justice
Why will they never sleep?
JOHN PEALE BISHOP
Why will they never sleep,
The old ones, the grandfathers?
Always you find them sitting
On ruined porches, deep
Ina the back country, at dusk,
Hawking and spitting.
They might have sat there forever,
Tapping their sticks,
Peevish, discredited gods.
Ask of the traveler how,
At road-end, they will fix
You maybe with the cold
Eye of a snake or a bird
And answer not a word,
Only these blank, oracular
Headshakes or headnods.
