1The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
2licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
3the understanding critic firstly sees
4one gathers rosebuds or grows old alone

5O Parthenon you hold the charger’s strings
6whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
7they both are right not unformed smatterings
8that every verbal shock aims to deprave

9Poetic licence needs no strain or stress
10or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
11watching manure and compost coalesce

12One misses cricket hearth and croaking frog
13where no one bothered how one warmed one’s bum
14they’re kings we’re mammal-cousins hi ho hum