The ordering of the first stanza's lines was the final change before going to press. The poem was cobbled together from notebook fragments. As you can see, it's all a bit of a Lucky Dip.
"legless man on a skateboard slurps a red lolly"
"rats dream of lab mazes"
"Into the privacy of snow comes Europe's rebellion"
"it will listen rapt, to the symphony of what it must do"
"blue eyes - in swimming pool couldn't see them"
The poem and the movie were made years before I visited Egypt, which is a poor excuse for the movie having pictures from Morocco and India. "The night sky listens in awe/ to the symphony of what it must do" is a popular phrase, as is "I .../hold an uncorked bottle to my mouth/ two-handed like a clarinet and play the blues". Escape from what? Routine? At the end the main character's expressively at one with the universe, but it's a universe of blues - eyes and temple domes, the domes painted with stars.
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