BROTHER RAT

Submitted by dalcassian on 31 January, 2009 - 9:33 Author: Sean Matgamna

BROTHER RAT
The migrant-lean long-tailed pilgrim rat
Retreats down, down, down, down
Inside the ship, down from deck to deck
Before the lifting, excavating gang,
Pitiless, relentless, unstoppable. Down,
Grave-digging down, implacably
They strip away the sheltering cargo,
Boxes, bales and bulky sacks;
Lift off the wooden boards,
Roll steel-clanging cross-beams back,
Peel back deck after deck,
Layer by layer, digging down
Down. Down, down.
Down, down, he runs,
Inside the ship, down,
Below the water line,
Down, deep down, down
Towards the blank steel wall.
Down, and down they go:
Fleeing, hooking, hoisting,
Until there's nothing left
Inside the deep steel skin
But the terror-stricken trapped
Unreconciled small rat,
Trying to run up, up
The stark steel walls — to fly,
And the nemesisian,
Score-settling, booted,
Steel-hook armed
Assassin gang.
The excavating,
Ravening, spent
Years, done and dead
Years ganged-up,
Dead years against
Those living still:
Brute lynch-mob
Mad in pursuit,
Ceaselessly
Hook, shift,
Take away
Year after year;
Hook and hoist,
Flicker-mirage
Your tomorrow
Into yesterday,
Gathering speed,
Digging down
Imperiously,
Murderously
Down, down,
Rapidly down,
Down towards
The narrow,
Narrowing,
Narrowing,
Beleaguered,
Final
Small
Shrinking
Glimm-
Ering
Tail-end,
Sliver
Of sent-
Ience,
Light
And
Time;
The
final
Glimm-
Ering
Tail-end,
Sliver
Of sent-
Ience,
Light
And
Time.

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