Bones Of The Dead City

BONES OF THE DEAD CITY

The bones of the dead city lie rotting in mud
The bones in the quagmire are rotten with bugs
Bugs are feeding on the bones of the dead city
Bacterial decay is ripe in the bones in the quagmire
Enzymatic action is rotting the quagmired bones
Decomposed bone turns slowly to dust
The Laws of Thermodynamics and the Laws of God
demand it
What lived
now dies
The total universal energy is not changed
The bones of the dead city lie in the quagmire
Bugridden mud is the scene of decay
Bacteria, once dormant
now thrive and multiply
The city
is dead,
even its bones which lie in the mud
where another colony
now lives

© GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Sheffield, 20th June 1972

Publications

1974 Poets & Poetry (UK)
1988 Global Tapestry Journal (UK)

A Poem for 1967

POEM FOR 1967

At first
it was easy -
too easy
Laziness crept in
ineptitude gradually gave way to inaptitude
At last
the crunch came
A crack appeared
in the structure
It held
for a time
but the flesh wasn't strong
and the spirit
had lost its will
The whole structure collapsed in a heap
the fragments scattered wide
But yet
it never
finally
died

GERALD ENGLAND

Composed: Ackworth, 1st February 1968

Publications

1974 Poets & Poetry (UK)
1975 AT THE YEAR ENDING (Colchester, Poetry Press)
1998 LIMBO TIME (Hyde, New Hope International)