"OIL"

Today i struck oil,
Found the source of the undertow pulling back
Emotion and life-spirit,keeping it low.
Torpid mats of history pressing down
On the pulse of heady fluid.
Its accumulating bulk an almost alive but
Definitely dead mass.

You could find a hundred inapt images of horror to
Account for it but it has no animation
And seems steady.It holds heavy sway like a slick
On the ocean.Inert.
It takes a strong gale to ruffle a slick,
A greater spiritual resurgence to burst up
Into the daylight panorama of a life...

Not truly evil but it doesn't need the sun,
Vegetative though,and black,converting mental
Minerals,those glittering prizes too speedy
For the pedestrian conscious part.Memory,dream,
Childhood joy all fodder.
A product of habit,convention,missed boats,
Chances lost,regrets-it steers towards a black island

With brass handles.
Meanwhile it dwells and solidifies the ever-weakening
Lights in time with time's tempo.Binding novelty
And surprise into itself...embalming and cloying.
"There's no fool like an oil fool".
Lost somewhere in a home-made black morass is the seed,
The cowardice lying too thick and deep to be yellow.

26.05.84.(for solita17 with thanks for introducing me to the site).

thank you, Simon.
mary