White Poem by Craig Raine

A cabbage white:
A bluster at the edge of sight,

unbroken bronco,
its own mute rodeo,

a battle without issue.

*
White toilet tissue,

a single grey sheet, whole
in the lavatory bowl,

like ectoplasm.

*
No lightning in spasms.

Dark. But white rain,
smashed transparency:

contains
flash photography.

*
Is now electricity:

tiny bulbs, silver-white, shine
on the blue plastic washing line.

*
Dirty white, a pigeon tarred
and feathering the road.

*
New lambs
out on their limbs:

abrupt
little hiccoughs.

The twilight tone
of damp pumice stone.

*
Indifferent happiness writes
its different whites.