POEMS
Old Man and Woman
They have got the refugee habit,
Walking about in the rain hoping for food,
Looking at their faces in the bottom of wells:
Old Man
They are living the popular life.
All Europe is moving out of winter
Into Spring with all boundaries being
Broken down, dissolving, vanishing.
Migrations are beginning, a new habit
From where the icebergs rise in the sky
To valleys where corn is-spread like butter....
Woman
So many men and women: each one a soul.
Man
So many souls crossing the world,
Old Man
So many bridges to the end of the world.
Frontiers mean nothing any more....
Woman
Peoples and possessions,
Lands, rights,
Titles, holdings,
Trusts, Bonds
Old Man
Mean nothing any more, nothing.
A whistle, a box, a shawl, a cup,
A broken sword wrapped in newspaper.
Woman
All we have left us, out of context,
Old Man
A jar, a moustrap, a broken umbrella,
A coin, a pipe, a pressed flower
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