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Quarry, Worth Matravers

Malcolm Povey

Huge blocks of stone, cracked ver cally,

cracked horizontally, cracked diagonally,
stacked into cliff, threaten us with crushing,

appear to have no reason not to fall, infill,
this abandoned quarry and all who enter it.

The ledge is slippery where we stand

looking down at the sea, waves hulking up,
ba ering down on streaming black rock.
Rock that outlasted Dorset dinosaur

and s ll resists annihila ng sea.

Just for a second – a glimpse – I fear
we are quarry, perched on rocks
precarious as a kid's bricks,

pursued by voracious sea.

One of your breasts cut off:
The other, untrustworthy.

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