In Denmark In November Poem by Frank Bana

Small squeak of the coffee can
Small dish of bright brown sugar
Clean white envelope and typing paper
Oranges and candlesticks
Box of matches showing march-violets
Solarpowered pocket calculator
Reports on race and class relations
Shallow and stained
On a desk in Denmark in November

Condensation drips on newly-painted windowframes
Music by Brel and Becaud
A half-formed song and poem
I make for disarmament
Dispowering the atomsplitters –
This is the poem

Back at the heat, the beat is distant and insistent
For work, for a love-encounter, for a meaning
Supplied by modest guarantee
Of a future where to deposit
Such savings of energy
Caught on the offbeat

It comes from pubwindows
From the mighty jokebox
It pins the thump of your heart
On the way to the corner newsstand
It chimes more compelling
Than waged pullers of rope
It forges solidarity
With the heat of marching feet.