The presbytery has lost none of its charm Nor how a garden’s radiance can disarm, Restoring hand to dog, and bridle to stallion: But this explanation fails this mystery. A plague on insight that cracks your talons, The analysis that dispels your sense of alarm, Wearing a preposterous cop’s cap for a perm, Pointing out here the just and there the felon. No explanation can redeem a mystery I prefer the faded charms of the presbytery And the sham radiance of a famous garden; I prefer (it’s in my nature) the shuddery Of fear obliterated by this tiny thief’s particularity to blatancy and fame, like some lamp of Aladdin.
(c.1963)