20 NOVEMBER 1964, Page 22

While We Live

Thinking about streets: Tar and gravel. A jarring surface to the heel.

Thinking about towns: A million mammoth honeycombs; concrete and glass and steel.

Thinking about words: Misused, misunderstood, not saying what they mean.

Thinking about men: Deodorised and narrow-clad, elegantly epicene.

Thinking about women: Busy-handed, empty-eyed, despairing on a diet.

Some dumb stoicism keeping them quiet.

Thinking about death: The unchanged imperative 'Our Father Which Art in Heaven' and so forth.

While we still live.

LEE LANGLEY