Untitled, By PETER READING

53 bus approaching the terminus;

dapper sartorial English elder

suited in Manx tweed, close-clipped grey tash:

Too much is wrong, Gibbonian undertones,

schooling and bread and dress and manners,

era’s decline, Elgarian sadnesses;

too much is wrong, duff ticker, insomnia,

ulcer and thyrotoxicosis,

end of the world in one’s lifetime likely,

flight of a sparrow brief through the feasting hall.

From “Evagatory” (Chatto & Windus). Peter Reading was born in Liverpool in 1926 and now lives in Shropshire, England. He has published 12 previous volumes of poetry, and was one of the Lannan Foundation’s Literary Award winners in 1990.

1992 by Peter Reading.