Sestina for Susan Sontag [poem by Tim Disch (1940-2008)]

Sestina for Susan Sontag
    --by Tom Disch

Susan, you must allow me to condescend
This once. I suppose you mean well, but
Is Godot what they really need off there
in Sarajevo? Wouldn't it be more worthwhile,
And amusing, to offer some gallows comedy
About the awful life they've all been living?

Of course, everyone needs to earn a living, 
And Beckett may be a better bet than "Muse, descend,
And help me write, right now, the comedy
All Yugoslavia's been waiting for." Better the butt
Of a few ephemeral lampoons while
The neverending crisis lasts than for there

To be new proofs that the Muse is rarely there
When she is summoned. Bad faith? Who's not living,
After all, one kind of lie or another? And while
There are hopefuls and a stage to send
Clowns on, there's life at the box office. But
Can't we, in hindsight, posit an original comedy?

One germane to the situation: a comedy
of terrorism that would show unshaven Serbs their
Visages, complacently corrupt as Joey Butt-
Afuoco, smirking and working for a living 
In prime time; show Croats gloating at the end
Of what little civilization they had; as, meanwhile,

Muslims pray for a new jihad. What would Simone Weil
Have woven from such contradictories, what comedy
of a Godot-less and godless world without end,
Rhymeless and unreasoning? Susan, Susan, there
Would be more comfort in Sarajevo from the Living
Theater's Frankenstein than from the droning sackbut

Of Samuel Beckett. Leave them alone. But, 
If you must meddle, offer an evening of Kurt Weill.
Have Bob Hope tell them life's worth living.
Appease them with sentimental comedy
By anyone but Beckett, and let is moral be: There, 
With the grace of God, go we. But don't condescent. 

Pretend you're human. And smile. Send but
A sentence to where they're waiting: Life's worthwhile,
And all's forgiven in the comedy we are still living.

       --- by Tom Disch (Poetry magazine, March 1996)

(Ed note: In 1993, Susan Sontag went to Sarajevo to stage a production of Waiting for Godot. Thomas Michael Disch was a celebrated American science fiction writer, critic, and poet. You can read more about him here. sdl)

Comments

[Jacqueline Lapidus]

Tom Disch was a good man, sensitive and kind and committed to portraying people warts-and-all in his writing. If he hadn't died so long-before-his-time (his best buddy and I are both in our 80s now), he'd be sharing unprintable comments about our human capacity to self-destruct, yet again.