Poetry Fruit Corner

Manchesterismus

Once

once and for a while

we lay unearthed
a humanity awaiting
in turmoil and slumber

in the earth of vibrant stasis
under the weight of our old liberties,
exceptions and guilds

we awaited

for Hobbes and Locke
Ricardo, Bentham, Smith
and machines, Coke and Coal
Iron, more Iron, Cotton and Sugar
Iron Ships, Iron roads, More and More
Faster. Great lanes across mountains and seas
wealth from Sultans and Rajas, Gold under Sioux and Zulu
Millions march, to the beat of coins rubbing, notes and bonds counting
Cotton, Coal, Iron, Coffee, Corn, release the Grain, end the famine pact!

Let us breath free
shake the world, kings and the masses
cut down, put up, burrow and burn, slice and sell on
Steam, Power, Light and Reason, Steam, Power, Light
Turn cities to shells, desert into Jerusalem, onwards, busyness soldiers
Steam, Machine, under foot, eclipse Rameses and Hadrian, Marvel, display

Mills and Comte
Fire and Rifles and Krupps
From Preston to Liege to Essen
From Vyborg to Milan to Concord to Osaka
Cut, Cut, Now, onwards, Faster, Quicker, Pace, Power
Let Nations arise, let them fall, nothing in our way, under foot
God is with us, God cannot stop us, God worships us, marvels at our works
Steam, Power, Iron, More Iron, Cotton and Machine, resist us and starve

And now we should bow
before the creators, the demons of construction
breaking eggs
and making miracles
bloody acts of divinity
out of shell, bone, flesh and the sacraments
kiss the plinths on which they stand
as we catch our breath
and wonder where we are