Shared cigarette

Yesterday the installation of dynamos and turbines;
The construction of railways in the colonial desert;
          Yesterday the classic lecture
On the origin of Mankind. But to-day the struggle. /.../

To-morrow for the young the poets exploding like bombs,
The walks by the lake, the winter of perfect communion;
          Tomorror the bicycle races
Through the suburbs on summer evenings: but to-day the struggle.

To-day the inevitable increase in the chances of death;
The conciouss acceptance of guilt in the fact of murder;
           To-day the expending of powers
On the flat ephemeral pamphlet and the boring meeting. /.../

          History to the defeated
May say Alas but cannot help or pardon.

 W. H. Auden, Spain 1937.