Take
after Marina Tsvetaeva
They took that mountain – the central pillar of the house
and quarried it away – took its granite entrails
to divine empire – and empire we read with a RP plum
whose stone bobbled in the throats of the radio announcers –
took that lake and made it a marina for yachties
to sign the water, sign sign signing with a florid sailor’s flutter
with the broadcasting corporation commentary to record it
took that forest and turned it in like a POW to Britain
with lopped limbs spine smoothed of knots
to be plonked in frigates for POWs to admire its girth
took the sermons on human rights and shoved it down our children
till they were daydream believers in an imperial matrix
where all light emanated from the monarch’s scepter
the Christmas Day microphone
took our throats with our land and their broadcasts
took almost everything except
the wisdom of our eyes
we see their racism everywhere
it lives on
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