Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

1

The vase of the little man
                          the homunculus
                                                    the sparkling essence
Of the child, the long trail
                          of snailtrack
                                                    billions of soldiers
Who give up the ghost, their lantern helms, their
                          bliss, the haunted ancestral halls,
                                                    the palaces of sperm;
If all these stars
                          are fastened together:
                                                    the snail’s body of moonlight,
Silver-track, miles of it: ‘This thing
                          is extracted from you,
                                                    for you are its silvermine...’
Their lantern-slime,
                          the speaking essence of the child,
                                                    a well-oiled flame
Of his upright torch.

II

The rain is one
                          with her cunniwater,
                                                    by the light
Of her cunniwater at dusk
                          she picks her way
                                                    between puddles
Reflecting under her green skirt
                          her cunning place
                                                    her palace that is wet,
Water-mirrors
                          reflecting under the green skirt;
                                                    finding at the mossy foot of a tree
A buttercup shining so bright
                          it was like lamp-light
                                                    on the way through a winding
Country lane continually found again.