The Snowmen Go To Sea

In the process of moving two months ago, I found a scribbled out poem in a drawer that I had copied down a long time ago so I could remember it. It was a poem by Stan Rice, a poet I initially explored because I'm a big Anne Rice fan, and Stan is her late husband. He became one of my favorite poets. So, this doesn't really have anything to do with class, but when I was reading Haroun, parts of it reminded me of this poem, so I thought I'd share it with some fellow literature-lovers who I know will actually appreciate it!


"The Snowmen Go To Sea"
Stan Rice
The Radiance of Pigs

The snowmen go to sea
In manly little boats.
The wind balloons the sails.
The snowmen float.

From emerald island to emerald island
With neither dread nor grief.
They drink hot chocolate
In shade of sails

And in the starlight sleep.
Starlight, oakum, creaking timber.
And on the storm the smell of mint.
Some are seasick

Others tender.
The bend to heave the bow about,
And their corncob pipes fall out,
And their carrot noses

Ride the swells,
And their coal eyes fall through coral.
Yet still they sail
Without fear or sorrow.

Then the calm. Their sails
Deflate. They laugh like carrion
Their jaws cave in.
The wet the decks.

A little tragedy is knowledge
And knowledge is comic.
The snowmen know there is no craft
To reconstruct their liquid vomit.

Nor fallen faceparts ino masks,
Yet go to sea, to die on water,
Instead of lawns as rotted clowns
In black top hats.