Two-stroke
the clapped-out two-stroke drove
its rubbers over sharp-edged gravel
(beer had turned us both to sad-sack idiots)
we were negotiating a track
that died away among the brambles
the wrecks of rusted barbed-wire fences
the moon lit with a sinister gleam
a water-tower penis erecting against the sky
the monstrousness of its great concrete knob
the engine finally extinguished its complaints
a carcase barely blacker than
the black of time on fields and trees
we were buck naked skin to skin upon the springs
of the bone-shaker I was talking into your mouth
and my words all gluey with your spit
struggled hard and suffered having to lie
the two-stroke wasn’t comfortable
it creaked and squealed beneath our weight
suddenly day broke through the crevasses
in the clouds and then we went home knackered
to bed down again on their ordinary rack
the atrocious solitudes of our flesh
Translated by James Kirkup
Page(s) 40
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