PRE-RAPHAELITE DANCE Poem by Gunnar Harding

It's in our sleep we dance so well
through fields of towering cowslip.
It's in the era before Raphael

before perspective came to light.
Darting through the air: a swallow.
It's in our sleep we dance so well.

Each person and each human act
take on the form they have inside us.
It's in the era before Raphael.

From yellow bells a melody rings,
the only song I wish to dance to.
It's in our sleep we dance so well.

A second-shard I see myself
as tiny, in the bird-eye's mirror.
It's in the era before Raphael.

Deep underground great maggots thunder
but the cowslips drown them out.
It's in our sleep we dance so well.
It's in the era before Raphael.