EARTH ~

DOUBLE NEGATIVE


You were standing on the quay

Wondering who was the stranger on the mailboat

While I was on the mailboat

Wondering who was the stranger on the quay

GIRL AT THE SEASIDE


I lean on a lighthouse rock
Where the seagowns flow,
A trawler slips from the dock
Sailing years ago.


Wine, tobacco and seamen
Cloud the green air,
A head of snakes in the rain
Talks away desire.


A sailor kisses me
Tasting of mackerel,
I analyse misery
Till mass bells peal.


I wait for clogs on the cobbles
Dead feet at night,
Only a tempest blows
Darkness on sealight.


I've argued myself here
To the blue cliff-tops:
I'll drop through the sea-air
Till everything stops.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

from High Island
Richard Murphy
New and Selected poems
Harper & Row 1974

mailboat : good-times.webshots.com
photo © bob arnold