“to police the earth, a ghost”
from Waking Early Sunday Morning - Robert Lowell | Pabst Blue Ribbon
The Poem
from Waking Early Sunday Morning - Robert Lowell
No weekends for the gods now. Wars
flicker, earth licks its open sores,
fresh breakage, fresh promotions, chance
assassinations, no advance.
Only man thinning out his kind
sounds through the Sabbath noon, the blind
swipe of the pruner and his knife
busy about the tree of life ...
Pity the planet, all joy gone
from this sweet volcanic cone;
peace to our children when they fall
in small war on the heels of small
war – until the end of time
to police the earth, a ghost
orbiting forever lost
in our monotonous sublime.
The Beverage
Pabst Blue Ribbon
A cold PBR, not in a tall-boy can is quite good. It must be icy-cold and finished quickly, ergo the necessity of the standard can. PBR is the beer equivalent of a plain slice of mass-produced grocery store bread. It’s good and familiar.