the coldest winter on record
so we went to the Odeon
for the heat of the crowd

the black and white Cockerel
his strident crow
our source of news

before the main feature
when I would fall asleep
wreathed in cigarette smoke

we saw men in raincoats
who smiled enormous

shook hands

women with black lips
in tight wound head scarves
crowded on the edge of pavements

waved

we saw tree trunks flayed to the bone
cast up by unheard of storms - onto the tide line
man high heaps of driftwood

I felt the shock of ice
that froze birds
cracked stone
chilled the child
into still birth

I saw a pile of men
so thin - so naked
they assumed a fundamental aspect
of some other material
that might keep us warm