El canal (1988)

XXIV. The Canal

Somewhere in dream there is an evil place

Where tall, deserted buildings crowd along

A deep, black, narrow channel, reeking strong

Of frightful things whence oily currents race.

Lanes with old walls half meeting overhead

Wind off to streets one may or may not know,

And feeble moonlight sheds a spectral glow

Over long rows of windows, dark and dead.

There are no footfalls, and the one soft sound

Is of the oily water as it glides

Under stone bridges, and along the sides

Of its deep flume, to some vague ocean bound.

None lives to tell when that stream washed away

Its dream-lost region from the world of clay.