Poem 339

The disappointment of Halley’s Comet again (see Poem 34) … it returns every 76 years so the last couple of occasions were within our age of science and mass media when everyone knows far too much about the unedifying reality, no need to be frightened, daunted, poleaxed, overawed or any of those other primal spiritual emotions … it no longer presages the end of the world … but was it better when it did? …

( I particularly like the image of comet as burning fuse to the ball bomb of our planet – ie. the classic cartoon bomb shape … )

The Comet That Cried A New Age

is coming back
the arch of fire
in the day sky
that felled kings from horses
shot down dread
on the trampled
like a burst crust of scar
chariots wheeling in the crops

birds flickering
across the blood crack
alien tooth through sky's straining egg
like a fuse roaring down
on the packed ball of Earth

demolished empires
madness
rotting cities abandoned

that was a comet
not this light emitting mongrel
snow cone of sleet
and slag tailings
lagging towards our skies
again

predictable dust
as much glory as a washing bag
sun swung like
a rubbish truck
round a dead end street