Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 27 Mar 2021


Taken: 27 Mar 2021

0 favorites     1 comment    45 visits


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California
Sacramento
Carl Shapira
Poet


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45 visits


....and there is a poem for this one too...!

....and there is a poem for this one too...!
The beauty of manhole covers--what of that?
Like medals struck by a great savage khan,
Like Mayan calendar stones, unliftable, indecipherable,
Not like the old electrum, chased and scored,
Mottoed and sculptured to a turn,
But notched and whelked and pocked and smashed
With the great company names
(Gentle Bethlehem, smiling United States).
This rustproof artifact of my street,
Long after roads are melted away will lie
Sidewise in the grave of the iron-old world,
Bitten at the edges,
Strong with its cryptic American,
Its dated beauty.

~ Karl Shapiro

Comments
 Diane Putnam
Diane Putnam club
Am I far off in thinking that the Indian manhole cover factories use steel that comes from recycled ships?* I've wondered that for some time, as I have seen local ones made in India and have been very surprised.

*Or, is it Bangladesh where ship-breaking occurs? I did some reading about this a long time ago but don't remember details.
3 years ago.

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