CITY I
Three men in a bus at night,
All wore brown shoes.
Two talked and pointed across the corridor,
The other was intermittently silent.
Three old ladies sat side by side,
All talked in scandal.
Two confided in loaded confidential tones,
The other looked through my head and said:
“There’s a light on at Alice’s.”
The city, incandescent squares
In the centre,
Black holes filled the sky
Where people had gone to bed early.
In darkness confine them,
In darkness confound them.
I know not who they are.
09 Apr 76
City II
Metal leviathans roar and shout,
Lumbering carefully, nosing into oil-washed bays
That are the bus-stops at the depot.
This machine which was a mortal
Sits within this shell of bright white lights,
Its gleaming skin of painted metal.
The leviathan has supped, it hurtles through the night.