Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                  Slo­gging Through the Cantos

A feral howl of sustained malevolence
The souring stench of anti-Semitism
Random ideograms scattered about
Appropriating a touch of Chinese cool

Defining tainted chic at Rapallo
Free verse scattered like post-war hopes shattered -
And did he take a splash of Mussolini
With his death-in-the-afternoon denials?

How awkward for those whose poetic sage
Was but a mad relic of a tattered age

Feather light words exhumed
heavy as Mussolini's clock
coo coo times, chimes
and a fascist bird sings;
sweet and succinct

Taken as is
might slight delight
The vitiation of words
in the phrases
Petals dead on a wet, rotted bough