Sword Blades and Poppy Seed/The Cyclists

Spread on the roadway, With open-blown jackets, Like black, soaring pinions, They swoop down the hillside, The Cyclists.

Seeming dark-plumaged Birds, after carrion, Careening and circling, Over the dying Of England.

She lies with her bosom Beneath them, no longer The Dominant Mother, The Virile—but rotting Before time.

The smell of her, tainted, Has bitten their nostrils. Exultant they hover, And shadow the sun with Foreboding.