1
Cablecars    Shigeji Tsuboi 1897–1975/Japan

Way way down, under beetling crags,
a quick, pinched river, startling blue, busies on.
Way way above, in the unmargined sky,
the cablecars move along in quiet order.
The heavy wire, invisible with air,
conducts with patient power
its hushed, believing loads
across the gap of Time. I think –
unsnapped so far – I too hold something
that goes on, and seems to work.


2
Worldsend    Jakob van Hoddis 1887–1942/Jewish Germany

Mr Normal’s hat flies off his head,
What should be nice fresh air goes eek and thud,
Roofers fall off rooves and fall down dead,
And round the coast (it says) it’s flood, flood, flood.
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