Four - Cross Road Poem by Oliver .........

The old man's in the street
Bearing a barrage of discreet
And disorderly communion of sounds
At the throat; helpers look
On to the other side
Of human nature, abstract
And unimaginable through the confusion,
That prevailing web on the conscience.

He belongs to the soil,
The seat of trees and pasture
And streams which bother lesser
Than the average man who succumbs
To the traffic of wheels and poison!

'Take him away' who orders so?
The law is bribe and bribery,
The briber and the bribed, the harlot
Proclaiming to air, her virginity!

A policeman interferes
There'II be rescue in promise,
the winding word's ladder
Towards the end
of what goes on, the unstoppable
Breath mauled by the wheels.

A day ends in him,
The victim of muscles and sinews;
A final place is selected
To rest him, keep safe
Until the sordid claim comes forth!