ACTIVE LIKE

POMPEII 23.V.07

When I was a young child

I warned them of the

arrival of the unravelling

of the world

and they laughed

ascribed my outbursts

to an active imagination

So I returned to my backyard yoga

and dug a hole to china

through the molten centre

of our limited globe

... emerged out

the other side

upside down - stuck hanging

enunciating my grievance

like a fly on sticky tape

pleading with the varied gods

in a buzz of foreign language

my hot words sorrowful

and filled like Pandora candies

with a syrup of forboding silence

at the centre and

suddenly the dogs want out

songbirds fall silent

absent themselves to the cooler distance

And ominous silence

always the new echo’s answer