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This poem is taken from PN Review 126, Volume 25 Number 4, March - April 1999.

Elementary Songs Robert Minhinnick

Hydrogen

Think of a pilot light
Blue as a cornflower,
Then the growl beyond your sleep
As the furnace wakes.


Lithium

Hey man, I'm famous.
That Kurt Cobain wrote a song about me.
And all I ever wanted to do
Was lie here in the tall grass and dream.


Carbon

Murdered, they buried me
With a pestle of wheat, a wineskin.
Now as the ice melts
Whose face is it you recognise
Grinning behind the glacier?
...


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