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On the death of a poet

for Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate

An endless line of foxes
terminates at this point.

The calling is silent.

Oak shadows declare a finish,
stretch stark savage fingers
to a vergeless hedge
where small corpses lie
uncelebrated, alone,
skulls bleaching unattended.

Much of the purpose is gone.

Iron men have found their bones,
breathless in a darker land.

 

Somerset 1998

 

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