[In the news,
the countenance of men
changed with joy.
I saw a beast singing
upon the tyrannical lamb.
The fanatic people lack
for nothing: bonfires,
all the bells in all
the churches ringing,
rumps tied upon sticks
and carried up and down.
The butchers rang
a peal with their knives
when they were going
to sacrifice their rump.
It was past imagination—
a street of fire.]
Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 11 February 1659/60. (If you read no other entries from the diary, be sure to click through and read this one!)
Yes, that was quite a day in the life of Pepys! Is it fudging to take a whole streak of words like that? XD
It does feel rather like cheating! I tell myself I am simply showing respect to a great piece of reportage…