Reading Robinson Jeffers on the Beach

Brien get poetic out on patrol...

Voiced by Chad Luckner, Written by Brien Bartels
Original music by Ian Botsford

©Kaotix Illustrated

Transcript

Reading Robinson Jeffers on the Beach

Ready by Chad Luckner, man's voice

Cory and I were patrolling one evening. We paused on a rise above Salmon Beach. The sunset was going to be one of those odd spring sunsets, the sun not so much setting as looming, turning the clouds unearthly shades of peach. The light played on the water…

I shouldered my carbine and pulled a book from my breast pocket, a tiny volume that was one of the few non-practical books I had taken from my apartment.

“Gray steel,” I read, “cloud-shadow stained,

The ocean takes the last lights of evening.

Loud is the voice and the foam lead-color,

And flood-tide devours the sands.

“Here stand, like an old stone,

And watch the lights fade and hear the sea’s voice.

Hate and despair take Europe and Asia,

And the sea-wind blows cold.

“Night comes: night will claim all.

The world is not changed, only more naked:

The strong struggle for power, and the weak

Warm their poor hearts with hate.

“Night comes: c--…”

“Will you stop that?” balked Cory

“Okay.” I said I put the book back in my pocket.

We look at the sunset for a bit. Then I ask him, “You never liked poems, did you?”

“Especially not that one.”