Song of the Flags Flapping mast-way between land and sky Flags of Honolulu and Hawaii I sing, those of the Caymans, Brunei, Papua and New Guinea, Iceland, Togo, Brazil’s a rhomboid yellow porthole Through which night universally revolves. So many the designs and combinations! Flag of the Boilermaker’s Union (Camden Branch); the Dominican flag on Which the winds stop for a game of Ludo; Tigerish guidons of butterflies, Mountains’ atavistic tricolours, The meandering pennants of rivers, Trans-national flag of light and air, For these too I sing, flags of dragon-breath, The stony unflutteringness of cromlechs, Zebras stampeding stripily across plains, Captain Amunsden’s snow-stained banner Some Eskimo now sports as an extra shirt, Weird metallic flags from other planets, Martian flags as big as the big toe-nail Of the big Red Rock Eater, that of Venus A cobalt blue and iridescent pastel Capable of infinite expansion Or contraction to cater for the differences In eyesight found in extra-terrestrial beings; Flags of Uranus and of Saturn That seem not to exist so much larger And more rarefied are they than our own, Flickering technicoloured flag woven From childhood afternoons in cinemas, Banderoles of Captain Perry’s Crowship Steaming into Tokyo Bay, behind it A crashing green crockery of waves, Mountaineer’s flags buried beneath snowdrifts, A ships’ ensign turned handkerchief against which Swordfish nowadays shine their noses And oysters nonchalantly polish pearls; Amoebae-type flags in clouds and oilslicks, Vast mastless smogs and fogs and mists, Geo-thermal flags of fumaroles, Lava’s slow-spreading red and sable, Farewell flags and flags of flags, flagging flag Of sunset hoisting how many more flags One midnight instant dreamily unfurls Martin Bennett | Mudlark No. 12 Contents | Apparent Failure: A Triptych