Then angels would play
Poohsticks
On the bridges of the cosmos
And Tennyson’s church
In Shiplake
Oxfordshire
Would become the centre of the universe
And wars would be fought
On Scrabble boards
The winner
Being the country
That could spell
War
The most times
In Serbo Croat
All poems would
End in
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori
(as Horace said)
And Ti Jean
Would have drunk
Soda instead of wine
And would have written
Fan letters
To Mao Tse tung
And marbles would be square
And the rich
Would make love
To the poor
Whilst quoting
Marx
In Esperanto
And General Vespasian
Would direct
King Lear
At the Minack
Under noctilucent cloud
As Canute
Taught mermaids
To swim