I believe the missing excerpt is from Midsummer by Derek
Walcott, which is as follows:
With the stampeding hiss and scurry of green lemmings,
midsummer's leaves race to extinction like the roar
of a Brixton riot tunneled by water hoses;
they seethe toward autumn's fire—it is in their nature,
being men as well as leaves, to die for the sun.
So, based on the excerpt, the speaker thinks that the
riot was somewhat inevitable.
To add, Midsummer is a sequence of 54 lyrics that record one
year's passing in the poet's life from summer to summer.
I think "I" should be replaced with me. Because if you're going to remove Mary in the sentence, it will be "He wanted ME to do the work" not "He wanted I to do the work" so changing I to me will make more sense.
the words are blurry in the paper