Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WHO IS IT?, by DUDLEY POORE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHO IS IT?, by                    
First Line: Who is it waves to you out of the trembling fountain?
Last Line: His despairing image.
Subject(s): Gardens & Gardening


Who is it waves to you out of the trembling fountain?
Through flakes of blue that have fallen
between scurrying grey cloud
someone smirks and beckons.

Who can it be is making signs at you?
Between the plump-thighed cupids that cavort
with conches at their swollen cheeks
bestriding mossy dolphins,
someone in anguish clutches towards the sun
like a cat snatching at a moth.

Someone down there is trying to escape,
some too inquisitive tenant of this garden
vanished before our time,
who craning over the grass grown edge
to see the sparks of hazy sunken sun
catch the blood opals of the Inca brooch
the old Infanta lost there years ago,
slipped on the treacherous moss and tumbled in.

And now,
tired of the gold trees and the singing flowers,
tired of the topaz fruits and amethyst paved walks,
tired of the ceaseless glitter
in that unchanging, unlaborious paradise
all fountains lead to,
where no one sweats in the sun of burning wheat-fields,
or wrenches the lurching plough in spring
through the steaming earth on ruddy hillsides,
or comes home weary through the plum-blue dusk,
he hovers wistfully under the brink,
tortured with longing.

And whenever you lean to touch the lily pads
he darts a thin, crooked arm
hungrily at your fingers,
but always before you grasp his hand,
the steel edged wind flashing between
shatters from the mirrored glass
his despairing image.





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