Shimmering the sun, sands
In a parched and smouldering haze of dust
Metal glistening with aggression
Primed to load, and thrust and burst...
Is that water dribbling from the rock
Life-giving in the furnace of the day
Or blood secreting life away?

An image on the retina of eye and brain
Your point of view or mine
The end was justified, we loved in vain
Time a blizzard blotting out our tracks
Reasons why we toiled and tilled
The soil of happiness, the loam of loss;
Dwelled in lonely palaces or in crowded shacks;
Sat on thrones of justice or condemned in stocks.

New generations seasonally appear
Peeping though the winter crust,
Prey to millennial illusions
The few win everything, the rest go bust;
A throw of dice, the play of chance
A wind in willow and a madman's dance;
Creation chaos in a swirling sea
Order a filigree imposed by those
Of us who cannot see.


February 2007