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                  Eternity, oh Eternity! That is our business.
                              -- Roger Williams

With a mouthful of Narragansett conversation
& a scroll for London     to charter a star

With a handful of snow     (proverbial heaven's
scale of values, like a wheel
or buoyant garden     of aerial cedar)

the friend of Canonicus & Miantonomi
set sail     at Christmastide     aye
to gather firewood splinters     for the poor
& handshake freedom     for the colony

Aye     there was a kingly man
whose bare estate was     commonweal
a breath of air     unearthly, sure
like a flock of cardinals     hovering home
high up     in the cupola--     (afloat,    again)

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Henry Gould | A Midnight Masque (in Greenwich Time)
Contents | Mudlark No. 6