Polar Bear

How fierce the bear in its’ cage,
All gone to the wind,
All purpose lost in a spending,
Moments of madness in one long shroud
It paces through,
In the bright white of the painted zoo -
See, how it swims!

But in its head alone, my child,
And look -
There again!
It caught a fish!

But the fish is dead,
And the brain registers not a clue
In the drab white of Bristol zoo
As the sworn shadow of the seal
Locks in a battle royal round the concrete den,
In the caged-up pen,
Not a trace that’s true:

See! How it’s gone, my child,
How it shakes its head -
Its spirit’s dead, my child – its spirit’s dead.

Sept 2001