Nike

At exactly which point
after the battle
does the Angel of Death
meet the Angel of Victory?
What do they say to each other?
How do they look at each other?
As his tent is being packed up
on a distant hill—
cognac, concubine, playing cards, maps—
a general smokes a cigar
hazing the morning light around him
as it grows sharper, brighter.
Too sophisticated a man to indulge,
even for one moment, in triumphalism,
he is brooding again.
He is always brooding…
Nevertheless, he believes he sees
over the slaughterfield
a kind of aura, a sheen,
a flickering, a fluttering, a something…
It could be wings.
It could be a woman with wings—
almost invisible, catching,
for a split second, the ambivalent light.
He waves the smoke away.
The scene is now clear-cut.
He coughs, calls for his horse,
drains his coffee.