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from: Times Tidings — Poems
for the Millennium
ed. Carol Ann Duffy, Anvil Press,
1999
The Cutty Sark
She has always sailed
from
or
toward Greenwich.
From
or toward the Prime Meridian of the World —
the
zero line of every map,
the
hairsbreadth
on
the Atlas of the World
where
once an Empire blushed vermilion.
She
homed on Greenwich
Like
a bird.
Here
was
her landmark.
Here
her
milestone —
a
signpost chained
through
continents and seas.
She
stitched an Empire
to
her shirt tails.
The
hem of lace across her wake
now
slips and fades —
her
stitch unravels
like
a smile.
Our
dis-united Kingdom
bumps
and yaws.
Pete Morgan
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