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Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

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Joseph Monson and Patrick Healey

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Night-mare

It's the giant
I see in my dream
Does it relieve me
Of past times
Or do I need
To cement his coffin
To the grave

Little child
Don't be afraid
The giant is
A kindly man
Don't treat him
With distain
Or worse
But ask him
Why he's here
And why
He makes you curse

The giant is here
Shall we strap him
To the floor
With a Lilliputian ideal
To make him feel obscure

The giant is here
Let's feed him
To the ants and worms
And feel
That if we treat him so
And strap him down
The night-mares
They will go

And life won't question
What life's for

The giant knows me
And I'll strap him to the earth
Cement him to the earth

But I feel like crying
Cause the giant
Is a kindly man
Who cannot help his size
Which is only anyway
An accident of birth

I wake as the giant
Rises from imprisoned fate
He's stronger than the fastened nails
And a wooden coffin
Really is quite frail

And so I wake
And question life
And what its for

shows poem in situ on page with line drawings of people

Drawings by Patrick Healey

Page(s) 31

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