Poem: One to Four
I One quarter of a century has elapsed the diurnal movement of a life-cycle rotating on its own axis turned inwards and away from hung by a nail upon the casement II Two of the nine lives have drifted sinking somewhere near the embankment while out prowling the empty streets at night digging in this corner and that poking here and there in the trashcans lining the alley III Three horsemen have appeared riding on fiery horses, spewing their sulphurous flame into the darkness scorching one and all with their terrible message blazed ominously across the bedstead IV Four has come arrayed the number of an ephemeral end a hermetic transmutation ordained by the fluctuations of fatality, falling like some ill-omened comet helter-skelter with the dice. ----- ----------- ------------- -------------- ----------- (from ''A Sad Piper'', 1994)