W. H. Petty
Plate of Steel
Obsessed,
becoming someone else,
lost in the black-lands,
cast on the changing sea
of city,
there he goes.
He stands
by the old monument
in the square, the hand of which
instructs him
in the sun.
Pigeon
rears high, firmly spring-tight
for a frock-coat landing.
Grabbed by an ancient fear
(tiny man,
down, scuttling),
he gives
illuminating cry:
“Do not bolt down that plate,
cruel past,
plate of steel,
past of steel!”.
The sun has gone, quite gone.
becoming someone else,
lost in the black-lands,
cast on the changing sea
of city,
there he goes.
He stands
by the old monument
in the square, the hand of which
instructs him
in the sun.
Pigeon
rears high, firmly spring-tight
for a frock-coat landing.
Grabbed by an ancient fear
(tiny man,
down, scuttling),
he gives
illuminating cry:
“Do not bolt down that plate,
cruel past,
plate of steel,
past of steel!”.
The sun has gone, quite gone.
Page(s) 19
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