looking for this poem
poet is probably Roger McGough
I cant find it on the net..
urgent
it might be in a book called 'touched with fire'

It is by McGough, but still under copyright, so no copies to be found on the internet.

[tinyurl.com]

[tinyurl.com]

The oldman in the cripplechair
Died in transit through the air
And slopped into the road.

The driver of the lethallory
Trembled out and cried: 'I'm sorry,
But it was his own fault'.

Humans snuggled round the mess
In masochistic tenderness
As raindrops danced in his womb

* * *

but something else obsessed my brian,
The canvas, twistedsteel and cane,
His chair, spreadeagled in the rain,
Like a fallen birdman.

Roger McGough

Hmmm.   Well may he write '* * *'.

I suppose, but can't be sure with something that looks so authorabandoned, that 'lethallory' is someone's mistranscription of 'lethal lorry'.

But 'his womb' ??!

Was RMcG trying to write a piece of sciencefiction futurespeak?

it's actually like that.. lethallorry compound words.. n the *** is actually there.. seperation btw what happened and what he thinks :).. compare it to the musee des beaux arts

You are saying is is an example of ekphrasis? A poem about another work of art, such as a painting or sculpture? If so, I would be interested in knowing the referenced work.

The 'raindrops danced in his womb' seems suspect to me as well, because of change in meter. I feel sure brian is a typo for brain, but the form chosen is also strange. Rings a bell, but I can't place it, I mean. Three three-line stanzas each rhyming aax and the separated fourth one with four lines rhyming aaa(a?).

Certainly doesn't sound like Roger's usual light verse stuff.