in such anger
as when Achilles saw Patroclus slain
rose I this dawn
an iron seal
fractured
with muddy shit and sewage
breaking through
dreaming
a Feydeau farce
of thefts, bedrooms and concealments
silly, giggling, effeminate
a flight by fields and woods
running scared
hands to earth like a dog
ducking a low fence
where others came before
dusty trail
on yellow grass
under bare branches
where the hunted fox
again and again and again
turns
breaking all patterns against pursuit
in such bitterness of soul
of half a life
drowning and snatching air
the spider's web
of sticky sugared threads
bound all about
condemning
all the mothers of the world
all the fathers'
embittering enfeebled
orphan souls
1000 sons
rotting in treacle
in childhood snared
who never sailed
to fight the fields of Troy
well may grief rage:
the heart awakened
the heart poisoned
and
the blood has fires
of which the heart knows nothing ....
14th November 1993