relief

 

 

 

                         relief

                    on a tired Saturday
                         late afternoon
                    sun shadowing broad
                         over the road
                    FM Juice plays 70s disco depressing
                         but
                    the violin of Classic FM is
                         strangely
                         alternative

 

 

 

afternoon wormhole: Saturday / afternoon
Brighton wormhole: … thank you
waiting wormhole: sitting
shadow wormhole: meditation

 

the end

 

 

 

                      maybe it was the tinted glasses
                      walking uproad to town

                                the
                                wide
                                low
                                grey
                                cloud
                                hung

                      then there was space
                      between the buildings

                      a woman walked handsome out
                      of the House of offices uphill
                                for lunch

                      the bus bsssh’d and waved
                      some suits across the road
                                downhill

                      then there was silence
                      and we all waited for

                                the end

                      under the green steeple

 

 

 

1974 – Greens / End Woolwich

 

 

 

                                     1974 – Greens
                                     End Woolwich

                                     grey skies
                           above Wellington Street
                           and bright bowls of white light
                           atop stripey poles at the crossings

                                     grey squares
                           of the department store corner facade
                           plastic headscarf against the
                           drizzle scattered all about the tarmac

                                     red 122^A
                           flat-face bus pauses before
                           the neon interior of the
                           carpet store crowdsofpeople

 

 

 

part of >>> years
a street corner of … Woolwich

 

bench / corner of Cantwell Road / and Eglinton Hill

 

 

 

                                                              bench
                                          corner of Cantwell Road
                                              and Eglinton Hill

                                do I work things out when
                                they are tangled and knotted
                                do I find a way a groove
                                a superpower that will
                                see me through
                                like an armoured vest

                                          no no
                                          fifty two
                                          years no

                                you pay attention
                                to the shade the leafgreen
                                behind you the breeze
                                between the collar and
                                the back of your neck
                                and the classic two-tone
                                mauve Chrysler emerge
                                from Nithdale Road
                                and turn downhill

 

 

 

a room in the House on Eglinton Hill
Plumstead wormhole: 1970s

 

’8:30 kitchen …’

 

 

 

                                                      8:30 kitchen
                                window bare shrub climbing road
                                       light green cloud-belly

 

 

 

ruddy pink

 

 

 

                                                      up the road
                                                      as the evening fell

                                                      even though
                                                      the sunset

                                                      ruddy pink

                                                      was in all the windows
                                                      of all the houses

                                                      it was still
                                                      bloody cold

 

 

 

evening wormhole: JJ Cale / in a coffee shop?
pink wormhole: handsome

 

‘glints off …’

 

 

 

                           glints off
                      headlights fixed
                      across the road
                      from the streetlight
                      through the netting
                      the taxiing aircraft
                           overhead

                      and a single burst
                      of three laughs
                      quick and slightly
                           descending

 

 

 

looking

 

 

 

                                looking

                      over the top of my glasses –
                                wow that’s a big bird
                                on the roof over the road

                      but raising my sight
                                it was a
                                street lamp

 

 

 

bird wormhole: ‘through the open window …’

 

Plumstead Common / Road

 

 

 

                Plumstead Common
                      Road

                you can see through
                      the leaf-clean branches
                      of the young tree
                to notice the Edwardian
                      window-tops of the
                      public building

 

 

 

Plumstead wormhole: until

 

1955

 

 

 

                      1955

                      two-tone shoes
                                brown with cream sides
                      beside the parked car
                                cream with brown seats
                      by the pavement
                                raised and crowded
                      on the dirt road
                                flat and receding
                      through poles cables and signs
                                on colonial buildings
                      so much difference
                                to the ever-rising hills