Priory School: boy and girl
won't listen to their Nanny,
climbing over each other,
playing and hurting.
Girl (about 6) mimics
the mitteleuropäische voice:
"Listen to me! Listen to me!"
Strata are gleaming.
The air tastes of battery acid.
Money spells are thick here
with the first deal
long since done.
A painfully accurate registration of something all too real, and extremely unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteHuman cruelty sometimes seems to have been instilled ab ovo -- is that the meaning of original sin?
climbing over each other,
playing and hurting...
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Was this "deal" done before the beginnings of history -- or is the deal itself the first deed?
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"Listen to me! Listen to me!"
Strata are gleaming.
The air tastes of battery acid.
Money spells are thick here
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The contamination of the aquifer, as far down and back as one goes...
I agree, Tom--there's always room for the "contaminated" at the water table, as this unadulterated poem shows.
ReplyDeleteThank you, gentlemen.
ReplyDeleteThere hasn't been a sign of a poisoning of the water that's stuck with me like this. That little girl voice in mimicry; I can still hear it.