The Professional Engineer-Poet

Though lime does not become him
the professional engineer-poet
cultivates light of that colour
in which to disengage his famous couplets.

Articulation, to the engineer-poet,
is archaic, for he erects
girders which suspend incredible ideas:
nobody knows how they stay up.

He has dispensed with the ingenuity
of rhythmic links. He favours happenstance
and manufactures what would appear to be prose
were it not for the subtle nuance
of utmost pause and invisible welding.

Longevity is his hallmark. He can suspend
thought over page on page,
sometimes deliberately leaving one blank
reminder of artifice. Witty extrusions arrest
clever travellers and rare-word collectors.
Pyruvic, cornucopeic and mirabolantic, oho.

He opens the umbrella universe,
impresses while leaving no impression
and reigns

Helena Nelson

If you've any comments on this poem, Helena Nelson would be pleased to hear from you.