Hunger

Bunichi Kagawa

The coal and glass and green leaves
Come from beneath the dark earth,
Crystallized, breathing, blazing,
In the flare of July sun.

Wonder at them; they will burn you whole
In your wonderment.
Speak to them; you shall be silenced
By their sharp secret.

Yet, here is a smell of sudden-civilization
In the smell of coal burning;
Here is a stark blow of soaring cubes compact
In glass and stone;
The sharp hunger of men shot into space,
And etched against the sheen of time,
Blazing—