Millennial Canto 1 Poem by Sally Evans

1 (i)
Words are poised to pour downhill
sandgrain spores of minimal will
arriving from the very top
tumble in arrowed fleck and frill
on liquid grasses lest they stop
till words link sunshine and rainfall
Time bright Einstein bent fall still
Space enter its own Great Hall
to warp the view from Saturn and Mars
of a word coloured with human ill
where funfair suns tour skies in cars
and astronauts behind their bars
examiners of packaged quips
like bubblebrains in comic strips
mark the blue watermeadows, trees,
rivers and oceans, dark green seas
glaciers, ice-floes, broken oars
sheets tied before the storm-force roars,
till glowering purple hide the stars
thunder eclipse all meteors
meteors explode on moons
and dolphins play round sailing ships
on sudden rainbow afternoons.

1(ii)
The college was a ship at sea
in culture. All cross currents ran
apparently confused, to plan.
There boffins yoked in bells or shifts
tended the lamp and trimmed the gifts
of tomes too heavy for the lifts
while in the basement bar cafe
where bleary academics booze
a student in his final year
of whose hilarious role you'll hear,
our novice hero, and a girl
with pen, the reinstated Pearl,
make words and actions white and clear
as water in a crystal well
or stalagmited splashing stream,
meet for the first time, share a nook,
two chairs, two coffees, and one book.

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