ISKENDAR

Iskendar
came over the passes,
leaving his army
to mumble alone;
he loosened his horse
to nibble the grasses,
sandily growing
from bush to stone.

They did not know,
(that grumbling army)
he chased To-morrow
through the stumbling snow.

A girl came up
to the ford below him,
to fill her cup
and water the sheep;
she knew his name
from the star in his turban,
and murmured in terror,
"Iskendar, peace."

She lifted
her cinnamon head-cloth slowly,
it fell to the square
stone at his feet;
we should have felt
the sleepy violets
and smelt their blackness
in that smooth hair.

But Iskendar said only -
"the empires of the mind hold me no longer,
in this strange world
what can I seek but danger?
I am lonely
for the land beyond the land beyond the Indus,
though after the great Vulture
and the thousand deaths,
there is nothing but Nothingness there."

He held up the star
and saw his army
turn in splendour
with lances, with drums;
"it is going back to yesterday
that breaks the heart, Iskendar,
Time is beyond your reach,
the darkness comes."