Paul Blackburn

 

Houses three stories high or block homes of apartments        both with steep Norman roofs   The fish swims in the river  and shares it with other fish                      The cabbages have a garden                      to share with the lettuce and radishes,                                                       the tomatoes The cow has a small pasture  and grazes it by herself                                                          An old man lies on a sack on                                                         a hillside in the sun                                                        after lunch .                                                        watches the train whip by   The dead lie in the cemetery near the tracks  share earth with the other dead and do not look at anything   A barge on the river barges past, the wash flying  The fish swim in the river                    They share it with the barge,                               the fishermen .