[Vwoolf] From "the liftshaft" (Faber & Faber, 1937), by Bill Tipple*

[Stuart N. Clarke]

*Actually, Guillaume de Vere Tipple

crackup in barcelona 



among the bleached skeletons of the olive-trees

stirs a bitter wind

and maxi my friend from the mariahilferstrasse

importunately questions a steely sky

his eyes are two holes made by a dirty finger

in the damp blotting paper of his face

the muscular tissues stretched tautly across the scaffolding of bone

are no longer responsive to the factory siren

and never again will the glandular secretions react

to the ragtime promptings of the palais-de-danse 

and I am left balanced on capricorn

the knife-edge tropic between anxiety and regret

while the racing editions are sold at the gates of football grounds

and maxi lies on a bare catalan hillside 

knocked off the tram by a fascist conductor

who misinterpreted a casual glance.


As VW might have said, “It is feeble as poetry, but interesting as autobiography” (Essays 6, p. 269)
    
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osu.edu/pipermail/vwoolf/attachments/20180405/2cfdc63e/attachment-0001.html>