Down The Devil's Highway

INNER GORGE OUTSIDE GRAPEVINE CANYON
WHEELER PT. FROM DARWIN PLATEAU
COLORADO RIVER AT GRANITE RAPID

I have been thinking about the man who gives in.
Have you heard about him? In this story
A twenty-eight-foot pine meets a small wind
And the pine bends all the way over to the ground.
I was persuaded, the pine says. It was convincing.
A mouse visits a cat, and the cat agrees
To drown all her children. What could I do?
The cat said. The mouse needed that.
It’s strange. I’ve heard that some people conspire
In their own ruin. A fool says, You don’t
Deserve to live. The man says, I’ll string this rope
Over that branch, maybe you can find a box.
The Great One with her necklace of skulls says,
I need twenty thousand corpses.
Tell you what, the General says, we have an extra battalion
Over there on the hill. We don’t need all these men.
--Robert Bly

Louie Ludwig / The Americanos: Down the Devil's Highway