Lost in the blue: child’s white escaped balloon,
Soaring in air part-bitten peppermint,
Marble of marble, sliver of chalky flint;
Cold egg of darkness laid in afternoon;
Ivory orb, half-hidden spectre’s crown,
Rock-crystal castle above all moist and soft,
Beyond our coloured sky pale palace aloft,
Proserpine’s throne in Hecate’s dim town;
Portentous face, mouth open without breath,
Dull eyes distorted under brows of stone,
High curving skull: bald head of staring bone;
Ageless memento of once and future death;
Night’s creeping spy undazzled by the noon,
Fore-gliding ghost: the daylight-shrouded moon.