Swing Lo Magellan
David Donnell Longstreth
Last night all my attention
Squinting westward at the sunset
With a map and a compass
When a man reached up said something
There
Against the sky
A point of light
Too
Invisible
To give itself
To the naked eye
On the shore people yellin'
In their eyes a great reflection
In the grid oh where their position
Unconcerned with intuition
There
Could never be
No sympathy
From
That wilderness
So let it be
Arrested
Swing low oh Magellan
Nine by six or eight by seven
Post a sentinel at the border
Of what what you attend
What you ignore
I saw my friend
In a pool of light
Oh drown
In doubt and shame
But I knew that I
Had lost my sight