This free-verse poem provides observations from a Martian visitor about everyday life on Earth. In 3 short couplets, the Martian notes that mechanical birds called Caxtons come in many wing variations and some are prized for their markings. Mist is described as the sky resting after flight, dimming the world. Rain is likened to the earth becoming a television. Unique Earth behaviors mentioned include keeping time on the wrist or in boxes, soothing crying ghosts with sound, punishing adults alone with only water for suffering noises, and hiding at night to read about themselves in color with shut eyelids.
This free-verse poem provides observations from a Martian visitor about everyday life on Earth. In 3 short couplets, the Martian notes that mechanical birds called Caxtons come in many wing variations and some are prized for their markings. Mist is described as the sky resting after flight, dimming the world. Rain is likened to the earth becoming a television. Unique Earth behaviors mentioned include keeping time on the wrist or in boxes, soothing crying ghosts with sound, punishing adults alone with only water for suffering noises, and hiding at night to read about themselves in color with shut eyelids.
This free-verse poem provides observations from a Martian visitor about everyday life on Earth. In 3 short couplets, the Martian notes that mechanical birds called Caxtons come in many wing variations and some are prized for their markings. Mist is described as the sky resting after flight, dimming the world. Rain is likened to the earth becoming a television. Unique Earth behaviors mentioned include keeping time on the wrist or in boxes, soothing crying ghosts with sound, punishing adults alone with only water for suffering noises, and hiding at night to read about themselves in color with shut eyelids.
This free-verse poem provides observations from a Martian visitor about everyday life on Earth. In 3 short couplets, the Martian notes that mechanical birds called Caxtons come in many wing variations and some are prized for their markings. Mist is described as the sky resting after flight, dimming the world. Rain is likened to the earth becoming a television. Unique Earth behaviors mentioned include keeping time on the wrist or in boxes, soothing crying ghosts with sound, punishing adults alone with only water for suffering noises, and hiding at night to read about themselves in color with shut eyelids.
Home A free-verse epistle written in couplets by Craig Raine
Caxtons are mechanical birds with But time is tied to the wrist
many wings or kept in a box, ticking with and some are treasured for their impatience. markings – In homes, a haunted apparatus they cause the eyes to melt sleeps, or the body to shriek without pain. that snores when you pick it up. I have never seen one fly, but If the ghost cries, they carry it sometimes they perch on the hand. to their lips and soothe it to sleep Mist is when the sky is tired of flight with sounds. And yet, they wake it and rests its soft machine on up ground: deliberately, by tickling with a then the world is dim and bookish finger. like engravings under tissue paper. Only the young are allowed to suffer Rain is when the earth is television. openly. Adults go to a punishment It has the property of making room colours darker. with water but nothing to eat. Model T is a room with the lock They lock the door and suffer the inside – noises a key is turned to free the world alone. No one is exempt for movement, so quick there is a and everyone’s pain has a different film smell. to watch for anything missed. At night, when all the colours die, they hide in pairs and read about themselves – in colour, with their eyelids shut.