Lines of Illyria
Jane and Harry Fultz
American Embassy, Tirana 1946
1.
Lights Upon the Mountains
Hear the whispers and the buzzing
As of countless humming bees!
Tirana’ rife with speculation
Of the curious things it sees.
"Have you heard? Have you seen?
Don't you know? Where have you been?"
There are lights upon the mountains, pinpricks aglow!
Against the hillside's darkened mass they flicker to and fro
Signal fires burning, calling to clans?
Perforce some danger threatens and there is need for helpful hands.
A revolution brewing? Are troops upon the move?
There are lights upon the mountains, but what can it prove?
Plucking tautened nervous chords, arousing townsmen's ire,
Can there be something more than a shepherd's evening fire?
2.
The Highway
Beyond this gate the curved among,
Accoutrements of city's pride,
The roadway stretches from the town
To the surrounding countryside.
Past this gate the common folk,
Men possessed of various places,
Of wealth, of health, of worldly power,
Wear smooth the roadway's surface
Times may change and new feet tread;
Regimes may fall the bullets fly,
But down the roadway nags trot on
And faggot-bearers plod by.
3.
I Had a Friend
I had a friend who lives some half a world away,
Among the crags and peaks of a far land
Where white clouds drift and eagles play
With a tireless ease I could never understand.
I had a friend who new me well,
And talked of simple homely things;
Of children growing in the sun and crops to sell,
Of food to store against the winter's rains.
I had a friend who dressed in a peculiar way,
Yet sensed my every word and thought;
He laughed and joked and had his say,
And sought the same things I have sought.
