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    painting of a scarlet cloud in a purple sky

    Poem: “Sunrise and Swag”

    By Jacqueline Saphra

    March 1, 2022
    1 Comments
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    • Lawrence

      A really good poem. Quite wonderful.

    “… Over and over again we have seen that there is in this country another power than that which has its seat at Westminster.”—Clement Attlee

    The river sings a duet with the mist
    as gulls gavotte around the overflow
    and peck at City scum; two Freemen row
    across the dawn, five plastic bottles drift
    seawards. The river’s left the beach undressed
    again. A dead rat pitches to and fro
    on green-fringed ripples. While the tide is low,
    mudlarks mob the shore at hope and sift
    frisking the sand for swag, and as the sun
    slides pinkly in to light up bankers’ reach,
    a host of windows seize the light. The gods
    command the brokers’ choir to rise as one
    and sing a song of money: the plundered beach
    is deafened as the trading floor applauds.

    painting of a scarlet cloud in a purple sky

    Marta Zamarska, Winter Impression I, oil on canvas, 2014 Used by permission.

    Contributed By JacquelineSaphra Jacqueline Saphra

    Jacqueline Saphra is a poet and playwright.

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    1 Comments
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