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I'm partial to Larkin and Heaney, but I have to say my favourite poem is this one by Lawrence Raab -

    Attack of the Crab Monsters

    Even from the beach I could sense it---
    lack of welcome, lack of abiding life,
    like something in the air, a certain
    lack of sound.  Yesterday
    there was a mountain out there.
    Now it's gone.  And look

    at this radio, each tube neatly
    sliced in half.  Blow the place up!
    That was my advice.
    But after the storm and the earthquake,
    after the tactic of the exploding plane
    and the strategy of the sinking boat, it looked

    like fate and I wanted to say, "Don't you see?
    So what if you're a famous biochemist!
    Lost with all hands is an old story."
    Sure, we're on the edge
    of an important breakthrough, everyone
    hearing voices, everyone falling

    into caves, and you're out
    wandering through the jungle
    in the middle of the night in your negligée.
    Yes, we're way out there
    on the edge of science, while the rest
    of the island continues to disappear until

    nothing's left except this
    cliff in the middle of the ocean,
    and you, in your bathing suit,
    crouched behind the scuba tanks.
    I'd like to tell you
    not to be afraid, but I've lost

    my voice. I'm not used to all these
    legs, these claws, these feelers.
    It's the old story, predictable
    as fallout---the re-arrangement of molecules.
    And everyone is surprised
    and no one understands

    why each man tries to kill
    the thing he loves, when the change
    comes over him. So now you know
    what I never found the time to say.
    Sweetheart, put down your flamethrower.
    You know I always loved you.
Hilarious, sad, and sweet. It wasn't until decades after I first read this that I found out that this wasn't just metaphor, it's pretty much an accurate synopsis of the Roger Corman film of the same name.



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