‘Whilst Coming Up’ and Other Poems

Whilst Coming Up

Whilst coming up from a blue pool of sleep
To the sound of young builders,
Would-be stevedores,
Putting up scaffolding with cut fingers,
Competing with the local magpies
Who themselves were doing passable
Macaques and macaws,
Whilst the friendly cats
Were calling out below,
‘Fall down, fall down from off the gutters,
Where you’ve been scattering
The shoals of that poor man’s dreams.’

And the blue pool seemed so close,
Dark and green glass balls floated
In the hush where other things were moving,
...