[Turner Cassity]

Waialeale Crater

Our helicopter hovers by the wall
Inside the dead volcano. Only half
A circle stands, a shattered stone carafe
Drained towards the sea. What made the east side fall--
A blast, an age's rain?--lies past recall
For creatures that crave pleasure, breathe, and laugh.
And yet this sheer cliff seems to telegraph
Deep human hurt; tears glisten down it all.
Clouds shroud the peak, the wettest spot on earth.
Streams lace the wall. Once sacred gifts were borne
Here for the god of life and lightning fork.
Why here, midst tears, not brash Olympian mirth?
Perhaps their god sees far, hears cries that mourn
From Dachau, Darfur, My Lai, and New York.



Comments:

As it stands, the ending is a cheap shot. It might work if the place names followed a timeline. Say, one of Joshua’s battles to something in the Middle Ages to Word War I, etc. The sound of the helicopter echoing off the crater wall would work better than “telegraph”, which in the poem is not prepared for.