227

                   The ashes of an unseen fire
Seemed to rise out of the dim
        Space before me, and the barrage
Of drums and banshee horns
         Fade and gutter, until two voices
Remained, mutually held in the
         Alloy of one duration : a vibrato
Interval that suspended itself across
          The vault beyond me, collapsing
Into eddies of half-formed arpeggi :
        Now in parallel, now in fugue,
Now in a low counterpoint that would
Gradually build itself only to fall back
Into a strained and latent harmony.
        As these voices faltered and drew
Near the threshold of silence,
      An explosion occurred : the report
Of a single screaming trumpet,
             Then an arc of white light that
Broke across the surface of the
                 Far dark causing it to buckle
And coruscate like iron under the
       Heat of a forge. It was as if a great 
Mass of fused points of light 
   Were crashing through a membrane
Of slight construction : the very fabric
   Of the lightless deep shuddered and
Rent in places and cataracts of
       Molten whiteness poured forth as
From bulletholes in a black pail.