Jack Beeching
The Riot in Barcelona
Legs gone skyhigh, as if a trembling crane
Dropped honey on the bed, against that wall,
Demolished rendezvous, a gap in time,
She wept; the fragmentary stones weep mead.
Helmet and club, amid a sensual mob,
Crack beeswarm skulls like randy potentates.
The street is littered; in the cold café
Faces are nervous, for the day was theirs.
Night treads away in squads of upturned cups.
Old waiters rest their feet, avoid the thought
Of death’s official face, an ordinance
Putting its mark on honey as on men.
As sunlight comes, an old man with a broom
Sweeps up the flux: yesterday’s newspapers,
Their blood and spit, fantastic promises,
Physical confrontations, broken limbs.
The wreckers enter an imagined room.
Survival is an old man in the sun
Scuffling words like torn-up paper napkins.
Life leans away, a schooner in the morning.
Page(s) 23
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