Elegy
I would be autumn earth, and hold
Your beautiful body, slain,
Where, lying still and cold,
Only the winter rain
Shall touch your limbs and face;
Where the white frost shall wed.
Your body to black mould
In the close, passionless embrace
Of that dark marriage bed:
I would be autumn earth, and hold
Your beautiful body, dead.
Sequence
I. ARRIVAL
Shining highways
Sing to your step,
Windows beckon,
Doorways open a square embrace.
Doors laugh gently
Swinging together
Behind you.
II. THE TOWER
There's a flag on my tower,
And my windows
Are orange to the night.
They are set in grey stone that frowns
At the black wind.
Inside, there's a guest at my hearth,
And a fire
Painting the grey stone gold.
My windows are black
With the hungry night peering through them.
Blackness lurks in corners,
Wind snatches the sparks,
Tongs and poker jangle together
Like the iron bones
Of a man that was hanged.