Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">TWO WOMEN ON A STREET</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">This street is callous apathy</div> <div class="verse">In a scale of greys and browns.</div> <div class="verse">Its black roof-line suggests</div> <div class="verse">Flat bodies unable to rise.</div> <div class="verse">Even its screams are listlessness</div> <div class="verse">Having an evil dream.</div> <div class="verse">Its air is swarthy rawness</div> <div class="verse">Troubled with ash cans and cellars.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">An old woman ambles on</div> <div class="verse">With a black bag that seems part of her back,</div> <div class="verse">And a candidly hawk-like face.</div> <div class="verse">She croons a smothered lullaby</div> <div class="verse">That sifts a flitting roundness</div> <div class="verse">Into her sharply parted face.</div> <div class="verse">Then she surrenders her hand</div> <div class="verse">To the welter of a garbage can.</div> <div class="verse">A hugely wilted woman slinks by</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">With a cracked stare on her face.</div> <div class="verse">Her eyes are beaten discs</div> <div class="verse">Of the lamplight&#8217;s ghastly keenness.</div> <div class="verse">She glides away as though the night</div> <div class="verse">Were a lover flogging her;</div> <div class="verse">Glides into the callous apathy</div> <div class="verse">Of this street, like one who cringes</div> <div class="verse">Happily into her lover&#8217;s hallway.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />