New Poetry - Modernist Magazines Project

to manufacture wooden legs for heroes
with a profitable side-line in glass-eyes
and employment found for over two hundred widows.
The feverish wounded in the base hospital
the nurse's coif becomes a phallic symbol
he hears the red cool drop and the cistern filling ;
and the stripped dead buried in ungainly postures
their lucky charms sent back with kindly letters ;
the invalids sent home with eyesight failing
to sit on a waiting list for operations
and never to be put off iron rations ;
and the nervous shipwrecked bodies in lovely grounds
set aside by old ladies with unearned incomes,
crucified nerves which come to life obliquely :
the cows are licking the shadow from the field
the wasps buzz angrily in the stoppered bottle
the devil comes daintily over the stepping stones
they sit in the sunshine, crying no rest for the wicked.
QUICKSILVER
KENNETH ALLOTT
All good people rise for the National Anthem
the hand gripping the razor in the pocket
the hand clenched in the hair, scrubbed in the basin
the knot of curious watchers at five to eight
the future with crossed knees
the kissing of blood relations
the future bed-ridden
expenditure on flowers
the future behind your back
sweet conception of Judas
the future lock, stock and barrel
all the hymns carefully chosen