Sunday, 31 January 2021

Bombsite Twilight

 Late spring 

and evenings 

stretch thin fingers

over the sprawl. 

Smoke from oil drum fires 

hangs in the air.

Cars nose home 

towards suburban  bliss

and the first lamps are lit 

on the stretch 

from Lawrence Hill  to Clarence Road. 

Vortex headlights whirl 

and the Easton roundabout 

slips into the sixth dimension,

where Doc-shod greebos 

battle jug-faced elves 

as Sta-Prest  teen-priests look on sullenly, 

brick-handed for insurance. 

The scene is near-pastoral. 

Upon Barrow Road, 

past the flickering high-rise golems, 

three amateur-hour boot boys, 

all fake swagger and foul tongues, 

make a reconnaissance of the wreckage: 

post-war bombsite:

a sea of bricks and shattered roof tiles;

skeletal remains of rusted metal;

empty paint pots, 

long lost tyres;

dog-shit and porn:

stirred by time into a wild, 

pungent stew. 

This is living.

Breathe it in.


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