A Fight to the Death
by Robert Graves (1923) — a poem card from Justes Mots
Two blind old men fight to the death in darkness, with one dying while clinging to a memory of being smiled upon, suggesting that love or a moment of beauty can matter more than survival itself. The poem captures how passion and memory sustain us even in our final moments, treating death as a consequence of devotion. It honors those who died for love or ideals.
Two blind old men in a blind corridor
Fought to the death, by sense of sound or touch.
Doom flailed unseen, an iron hook-hand tore
Flesh from the enemy’s ribs who swung the crutch.
One gasped, “She looked on me and smiled, I say,”
So life was battered out, for yea or nay.…