Last Winter

Perry for December 1950

VOL. LXXVIT NO. Il

mr)

DD LL dd dd dd dd dd

eee Tee

LAST WINTER

i]

H e said (last winter),

these people have the advantage over us,

and I was sorry, God knows I was sorry enough;

the burnt-red of Texas or the sun-burnt bronze

of his Arizona desert

had not had time to wear off,

and the rest of them stood in the rain,

a neat line waiting,

not saying anything,

but he barked from a young angry throat,

these people have the advantage:

so we did, so we had,

we shuffled along in the rain,

a dingy crowd

with fish-baskets, old rain-coats,

funny umbrellas, a motley host,

dim, undistinguished, water-rats

in the water,

land-rats in the gutter.

i

These people have the advantage over us,

did he speak for himself or for

the rest of the bronze giants?

I wanted to stop, slithered along,

web-footed, trying to work out in that moment,

whether it were better to stop, to speak,

but I was embarrassed by the neat row of them,

drawn up on the pavement,

and what would I say anyway?

I wanted to say I was sorry,

actually thinking of them,

not of us.

ui

I wanted to say I was sorry,

but why should I? but anyway,

I did want to say I was sorry,

but how could I? who was I?

I wanted to say, yes, we're used to it,

we have the advantage,

youre new to it;

we've slithered so long in the rain,

prowled like cats in the dark,

like owls in the black-out,

look at us - aenemic, good-natured,

for a rat in the gutter's a rat in the gutter,

consider our fellowship,

look at each one of us,

we've grown alike, slithering,

slipping along with fish-baskets,

grey faces, fish-faces, frog gait,

we slop, we hop,

we're off to the bread-queue,

the meat-shop, the grocery,

an egg? really madam - maybe to-morrow -

one here - one there - another one over there

is heroic (who'd know it?)

heroic? no bronze face -

no no no

what am I saying?

Iv

It was Goldie, that was her vulgar name,

(one of these was her mother);

better move over,

the fire-man said, miss,

getting a bit hot, miss,

(look out

look out

wall!)

better run your little bus

around the other side,

cigarette miss?

he offered her a cigarette

because... he thought ... for a minute...

he might push her out of it...

it's no use Frank, that's Goldie -

what of it? she's a kid,

she's too young - Shut up,

all the kids are in it.

Goldie wouldn't move away,

she was told to stay.

Vv

Goldie was one of us,

we are one with Goldie;

Arizona desert,

Texas and Arkansas,

how could you know,

you did not see

what we saw:

Goldie was only one,

Goldie's all around us,

gutter-rats,

land-rats,

look at us,

slop flop,

stop hop,

past Arkansas, Kansas

drawn up on the pavement:

no one will tell you;

only I, one of you,

one of them,

know the rune,

only I can play the tune,

make the song,

tell the story

of Goldie:

Goldie made the words come true,

the sun never sets on

anaemic faces in the line

waiting in the bread queue.

vi

The reason is:

rats leave the sinking ship

but we

we

didn't leave,

so the ship

didn't sink,

and that's madness,

Lear's song,

that's Touchstone's forest-jest,

that's Swan of Avon logic:

the ship didn't sink

because

the rats knew

the timber true:

the ship-rats hop flop

along the pavement-deck a-wash,

O Kansas, O Arkansas,

Goldie wouldn't move away,

Goldie was told to stay.

HD

vu

Frog faces,

frog lust,

frog bellies

in the dust,

till unexpected flame

gave you another name:

(there's the siren wail again,

May 15;

by the clock,

near 6,

that's 4

by the sun):

frog faces,

frog lust,

frog bellies

in the dust

of the Last Judgment Day:

when winter-fog is gone,

the frogs sit in the sun,

and now you can see

strawberry-leaves

on a crown,

a lion,

a unicorn:

now you can clearly see

what frogs in the sun

become:

salamanders in the flame,

heraldic wings surround the name

English from Englisc from

Engle, Angle

from the Angles who settled

in Briton.

vill

Now you can clearly see

why I sing this mystery

of Goldie, Angel in the sun,

of Goldie up with the fire-alarm,

now this stocking,

now the other shoe on,

of Goldie who ran and chaffed

the telephone-girl because she laughed

at Goldie lazy

but up with the gong:

sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell

(hers, rather - Goldie's - )

ding dong bell.

H. 0.

ix

Goldilocks, Goldilocks, let down your hair

for we have never seen anywhere

a thread so delicate, spun so fair:

Goldie in a tissue-paper frock

hunts for strawberries in the snow,

or was that another? anyhow

Goldie or Gretel in woolen socks

scatters bread-crumbs to show the way

through the dark forest, or did you say

a Saint with Halo beside a wheel

is set on an altar where people kneel,

to take their bread from a priest, instead

of Gretel who changed her crumbs

for pebbles? the pebbles lay like little shells

under green-boughs that swayed like water,

while over and through it swam sea-girls;

the youngest princess begged feet for fins,

Goldie, Gretel or Saint Catherine?

x

You may say this is no poem

but I

will remember this hour

till I die:

the clock from the old bell-tower

says two

but the sun climbing the sky-clock

points noon,

exactly noon; May 16

says the calendar,

and the steps of William's orangery

at Kensington

become the Venetian doge's water-stair:

exact perfection,

Iam 56,

the may-trees blossom:

the wall-door under the chestnut-tree

that I nor anyone else ever saw open,

opens and lets out a carpenter:

he has his chisel,

I have my pencil:

he mends the broken window-frame of the orangery,

I mend a break in time.