[Sundae]

It's raining today. Made me think of this.

A Martian Sends a Postcard Home

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings--
books
they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.
cry or laugh
I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on the ground:

then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under tissue paper.

Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the properites of making colours darker.

Model T is a room with the lock inside --
a key is turned to free the world
car
for movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.
rearview mirror
But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.
watch
In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
that snores when you pick it up.
phone
If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep

with sounds. And yet, they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.

Only the young are allowed to suffer
openly. Adults go to a punishment room
having a poo!
with water but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises

alone. No one is exempt
and everyone's pain has a different smell.

At night, when all the colours die,
they hide in pairs

and read about themselves --
in colour, with their eyelids shut.
dreams
Craig Raine
explanations by me (obviously) just in case it wasn't clear