Fixed Ideas

Kenneth Slessor

Ranks of electroplated cubes, dwindling to glitters,

Like the other pasture, the trigonometry of marble,

Death’s candy-bed. Stone caked on stone,

Dry pyramids and racks of iron balls.

Life is observed, a precipitate of pellets,

Or grammarians freeze it into spar,

Their rhomboids, as for instance, the finest crystal

Fixing a snowfall under glass. Gods are laid out

In alabaster, with horny cartilage

And zinc ribs; or systems of ecstasy

Baked into bricks. There is a gallery of sculpture,

Bleached bones of heroes, Gorgon masks of bushrangers;

But the quarries are of more use than this,

Filled with the rolling of huge granite dice,

Ideas and judgments: vivisection, the Baptist Church,

Good men and bad men, polygamy, birth-control . . .

Frail tinkling rush

Water-hair streaming

Prickles and glitters

Cloudy with bristles

River of thought

Swimming the pebbles—

Undo, loosen your bubbles!