with cloth and clown
with after-born comes lifeless to the hybrid
to the geese of throbbing beauty on a starboard bow
migrating to-and-fro as taverns rave and rant and roar
warring hens christened without purpose to the crown
as climbs the Downs of pollen fractured seed of opium
half artichoke - half mute -
half penny to a whole man feeding sperm from cage to womb
to honour and exhume one being great as god
as great as wedlock hinges cold as string;
how far gone the days when once life treasured craft?
with cockrel, hen, with bulls blood running through the veins of ram horn, blows a wind
a winding wind as tall as Northern Star
stands silent through a weathered dust
from child to trinket
from trinket to a blood lost wrist
a scissored hand cuts deep beyond the comet of the eye
post-war past anticlimax as,
caged birds as aged venom whistles helpless as a beacon on a wing
hooked on absynth daffodil and kissed by Autumn feed
but green hands to the father of the plague
the frail limbs once of March Hare
now a wilderbeast as strong as skin is weak
kissing boneless with the grateful dead
as puppets dance a tango dressed as cigarette and pipe
still silent through a weathered dust, to silently reflect
from boy to man
from man to father of the plague
from mother to a cage where died my womb;