7 JULY 1967, Page 19

Underground

MICHAEL IVENS

Erect Assyrian statues hands fixed on knees we gaze through each other in the jolting museum Mercury glides out his ankle wings beating below his pin-striped trousers I am carried towards day as a black colossus descends with Persephone in his arms Or was it Othello on the escalator?

Pallas Athene takes my ticket I lose Mercury in the crowd Outside the theatre Bacchantes tear Orpheus into little pieces I pick up his guitar and drop it into the Thames A hand plucks the strings sadly as it floats away