voice of violet war

put here your illegal ear
to the crystal set

his wartime voice of the hollows calls
Danzig—the Finland Station—Archangel
from tractors in rubble London cat-calling
Enigma coding nickel from The Finns/oil from Ploesti
......... morsing out Ultra

London crawling into its own rats unreal the voice of paper night
sirens overarching stalking Goering's drub...
violet descent gratified
all stations all stations
descent will be gratified

towers of rats escape the thin megaphone
flow down into an underworld
that wafts out a stench of its new organs
at Saint Pancras at the King's Cross
all-atlantic emergency
from Hut 9 Hut 10 unknown
maybe it's because I'm

so many children now laugh in new rubber faces
not hearing these glass these fog signals fly in
from the North Sea pinned across fuel oil fires
on vast maps lights that burn and disappear
as the pieces are swept from the table

weather report from location X12T set fair homeward

into the cold alive moment
frozen in the warm moment
all stopped held tight the thin voice
the moment
that says let us go then you
Queen Mary ship of dreams coming
over rooftops at night
at night at black midday
solve et coagula Saint Paul's in the smoke
report fire here light and not light and light there look
every light in its own water not yet the nigredo or the yellowing

so many of us just quietly borne away
little fires at sea
gone out