Sleeper pier and slumber jack
tight-rope spliced and whipped
Loops and nooses
hoop the straining capstans
greased and gripped and slipped
Boat-heave and hauser creaks
on concrete causeway rust,
Encrusted with tiny, shiny pebbles
and tyre flabbered
Tyre bald cranes ride,
from metal sheds
Where cavernous clangour rings
a demonic toll
As if to call
the raggy-pocket, cycle-tringed
grease cap monkeys
to spanner, and swear, and clang
Exotic sailers
and clackety-clog steamers
heave loaded loins at the cushioned quayside
Steered from an Empire
that shone dark as Victorian souls
in Dvorak’s old and tired world