II
Earthly etherea: adorn
these pregnant plains.
E’er-seeded maiden land;
adored ether’yul Earth.
Break ‘to budding birth-throes –
th’labour of the eastern shore,
begetting new lucif’rous wings
to rise and fall in fire.
Faint cries fringe the pre-morn
firmament, its white-lit pitch
disturbed – inevitable transformation
scorned by energy.
Soundless stands each stretch of houses.
Come to courtyard at street’s end:
muted’s the protracted pain of
tight’ning ‘ternal walls.
Straw heaps strewn ‘n livestock
huddled; wood-slat-slating o’er.
The servant girl – with woman – coos
‘n shifts new-soiled hay.
Hunched paternal, bale-atop,
whittling wistsomely, a fathered
figure frets upon th’fate faced
by his bead of light beloved.
Tearing at the world’s beginning,
crowned in blackblue-goldenred,
the sky sings of arrival as
the sun returns to being.
Image credit – Carlisle Theatre
william altoft 