1.

On a little peninsula 

In a dredged-out bay

An old man with a sack

Upon his shoulder

Feeds the crows

 

2.

Along a tiny peninsula

As white as salt

An old man with a heavy sack

Upon his shoulder

Saunters feeding

Crows

 

3. 

Cinematomorphic flashes from

Peninsular train windows

Railroad the complete splitting

Of the crow-peopled cosmogony:

(Yet knowing that to be

Is better than to be going.)

 

4.

Apocalyptics unanimous

Disengage and deburrow

Black as corby night descends

The moon knifes down 

Upon the tiny salt-flat-white

Peninsula.

 

5. 

An old man with a heavy sack

Flings it to the crows.

From Tau by Philip Lamantia and Journey to the End by John Hoffman, edited by Garrett Caples © 2008 by City Lights and Nancy Peters for the Estate of Philip Lamantia. Reprinted with the permission of City Lights Books.