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A sea-change

By Derek Walcott

By Derek Walcott, in Agni: 67. Walcott’s new collection, White Egrets, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 2010.

With a change of government the permanent cobalt,

the promises we take with a pinch of salt,

with a change of government the permanent aquamarine,

with a reorganized cabinet the permanent violet,

the permanent lilac over the reef, the permanent flux

of ocher shallows, the torn bunting of the currents

and the receding banners of the breakers.

With a change in government no change in the cricket’s chirrup,

the low, comical bellow of the bull, or

the astonishing symmetry of tossing horses.

With a change in government the haze of wide rain

which you begin to hear as the ruler hears the crowd

gathering under the balcony, the leader who has promised

the permanent cobalt of a change of government

with the lilac and violet of his cabinet change.

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