Increment by Josephine Miles

So populous the region

That from the next region

The crowing of children, barking of cars could be heard,

So that a continuous linkage

Of sounds of living ran

In the limber air,

District to district, Woodlake to Montclair,

Freestone to Smithfield, and one child’s cry

Was not concealed from any trade route,

Or passer by,

Or upstairs island of thought withdrawn,

Or basement of submerged magnificence.

One crow

Welkened the evening sky,

Bark blasted the dark,

Like an assertion in a time of assent,

Or an increase to astonishment.

June 1958

Rating:

Increment