On The Final Words of Famous Disasters

  

    Robert Brasillach’s last

Sarcasms were worth

Their weight in Fascism, but

It took the overeducated

              Ounces

Of his body to say it:

“Long live France anyway!”

The pounds he gave up

    Were enough

To earn back the conscience

Shortage shaped as citizens

During the Vichy years.

   In 1999, the corpse of

George Mallory, preserved youthful,

   Was found

By climbers on Everest’s

North Ridge. “Because

It’s there”, he was famous

For answering, when asked

Why he would attempt

To raise his ice pick at the summit.

Men who have fallen from love

Have answered better.

“Top of the world!” So much the

Better, to view the bottom.

When the Americans found him

He’d been waiting for rescue

Seventy-five years.