I know a rocky world
Where night leans down with flowing breasts,
And every man, woman, and child
That roams therein is nursed.
Secrets blinded by the sun
Regain their sight, and each dim creature
Peers with the eyes of a hawk.
Over the crags and through the crevices
They crawl on night-born feet,
Sure with determination’s balance.
Inspired by the tongues of the intuitive sea
They speak a dark language withheld by day,
And in the clear obscurity of stony shores
Where class distinctions, like shadows, fade,
The hungry are fed, the well-filled divide their store.
When dawn raises its golden head,
And birds sing purely,
That rocky world, of night bereft,
Lies ravaged by light, by rats, and shrill with gulls.
Hunger mounts amid the ruins.
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