f/5.6


1. pre

not to evoke         to recreate         but just to understand
to get beyond         the smear in the soil         sniggers
in the still air         as we try to negotiate the syllables
that preceded ours        can a language be truly dead
that oscillates in sympathy with ours         hums just
beneath the skin         bronze shields glittering in the sun
market clatterings         hands         fashioning & decorating
pots         these fragments         speculative         tension
affecting         the very follicles         cropping         the marks
in the soil         seen         from the air         a decrepit culture
pre-civilisation         the photos show         circles & lines
about an axis         a river winding through         parks
blasted buildings         what we don't see          the smashed
bodies         the crop marks         the worst of it         appear