Feet, Feet That Walked Away With the Toes

Heavy the hoods of the eyes that laboured the scan of horizons Heavy the course of the thoughts that sat unstirred on the sill of the stare Heavy this ancient bottomed nose sitting in judgment over this meat Endlessly shunting the frenzied workers now sniff-drunk and steam-bellowed in the street This the scull careered through rutted scars the primeval hair bushed in pathways Where long tribes with long lances prod the undergrowth for signs of lost bones These the ears that heard the wake of worlds wandering in the ever irretraceable tread Ears though that admit the silent secrets ever still and hospitable to the panicky refrain This the assembled machinery, forging fire have dropped the tongs Down the corridors of investigation hurtling in darkening diseases These the loins, companion of time stalked through fire, filth, and foam Baked in the hot ovens of empires wearied some morning in blurry depredation Wobble-eyed, knee-tied, dragged with pacing company through yesterdays that are forever lost indemnity Heavy the larvae lipped throb, kiss and consider heavy the molten strata ooze, consider and kiss These the organs that prodded nations and shrivelled up to curse them all in pain Pursed its potency, convulsed the course of the vein this the dismembered member of the tribe Heavy, alas, these feet that thump jog and reel in the dancing rhythm of millenniums Trod on the will-less face of faiths twitched their toes and walked their way ©: T. Wignesan, 1957 (from the collection: Tracks of a Tramp. Kuala Lumpur-Singapore: 1961)