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This poem is taken from Poetry Nation 4 Number 4, 1975.

Approaches Stewart Conn

I - Houdini

'I swear we padlocked
him firmly: I held
the chains as they clicked
into place: arms manacled

behind his back. There
need be no suspicion
on that score. Even
with luck, I never

thought he'd reach the shore.
He'd escaped more than once -
but always from under
water. The St Lawrence,

this time, was frozen over . . .'
He made it, of course.
Not, as the papers
...


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