Salient: An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 11, No. 10, August 18th, 1948

Song for a Strike in Winter

Song for a Strike in Winter

The skyline reveals
The chimney-pot' maze
The glut of roofs
The narrow ways.

Cold grey stone
And cold grey slate
Rain-running gutters
Clouds in spate.

Clouds atumble
And roofs awhirl
The winter sky
Is a hungry girl

With shredded hair
And eyes afire
Where the wind-lapped streets
Bog down desire.

The works are silent
And the bus-lines lengthen
And the sirens are stilled
The picket-lines strengthen.

With night snow flurries
And helmets of steel
Rifles menace
The truncheons wheel

But the winter sky
In a spasm of mirth
Laughs a thunderclap
And salutes the earth.

K. J. Hollyman.

Paris,