Advice: A Book of Poems

<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</SPAN></span> <h2 class="nobreak">FOUNDRY WORKERS</h2> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Brown faces twisted back</div> <div class="verse">Into an ecstasy of tight resistance;</div> <div class="verse">Eyes that are huge sweat drops</div> <div class="verse">Unheeded by the struggle underneath them&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">Throughout the night you stagger under walls</div> <div class="verse">Where life is squeezed to squealing bitterness.</div> <div class="verse">Beneath your heaving flash of limbs</div> <div class="verse">Your thoughts are smashed to a dejected trance</div> <div class="verse">And you are swept, like empty mites,</div> <div class="verse">Into a glistening frenzy of motion....</div> <div class="verse">Yet, on a Sunday afternoon</div> <div class="verse">I have seen you straightening your backs with slow smiles;</div> <div class="verse">Walking through the streets</div> <div class="verse">And patiently groping for lost outlines.</div> <div class="verse">Your lips were placid bruises</div> <div class="verse">Almost fearing to relax,</div> <div class="verse">And often out upon some green</div> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</SPAN></span> <div class="verse">Your legs swung themselves into long lost shapes.</div> </div> <div class="stanza"> <div class="verse">Perhaps upon your death-beds</div> <div class="verse">You will lift your hands, with a wraith of grace,</div> <div class="verse">Showing life a last, weak curve</div> <div class="verse">Of the rhythm he could not kill.</div> </div></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />