A206 / Plumstead Road: / perched on a wall

 

 

 

                                                   A206
                                          Plumstead Road:
                                          perched on a wall

            it’s when I wander off

            looking for the angle
                      that will see me straight
            looking for the time
                      that will connect me to my
                                birth
            looking for the change
                      that shows how things
                      are still the same
            looking for the step-aside and crossing
                      that will vindicate my notice

            that I’ll have missed
                      the miles and miles
                      I have walked

            not to mention the street tree here
                      square in its own plot of land
                      before shoals of roaming car
                                its trimmed branches reaching
                                from its sturdy trunk
                                          variously into the sky

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich
walking wormhole: strangers
Plumstead wormhole: bench / corner of Cantwell Road / and Eglinton Hill

 

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

 

Woolwich Central – / making life better II

 

 

 

                Woolwich Central –
                making life better II

                outside the sectioned late-Victorian gothic house
                I know how much I cannot be the superhero
                to the voice sustained in high-register vengeance and edge of fear
                let alone the silent voice that sits by the hollow dividing wall
                under the table

                can I rend those walls asunder
                and pike the onslaught with a single glance
                deep into the whorl of flinch and recoil
                of a lifetime?

                can I scoop up the silence and hold it foetal
                forever safe from the division and board
                before the window?

                                can I

                may the pain of scream and the silence of numb
                build the very thirteen floors of open-plan living
                in the centre of the city that they never quite found
                when they first committed their lives together
                for life

                and may all the fear and cower magnify transparent
                exponential to the tangle that pulls it all tight
                into its own relief – the space forever at its heart
                as the space between these words
                that allows them to be read

                thank you

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich
Plumstead wormhole: Bonus Books
superhero wormhole: HA!

 

Woolwich Central – / making life better

 

 

 

                                     Woolwich Central –
                                     making life better

                           over two years of lifting
                           the red cranes are still there
                           with ten floors of walls and girder
                                     around them

                                     where I used to see
                           for hundreds of meters while
                           the government offices were demolished
                           now I have to look up

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich

 

portrait

 

 

 

                           portrait

                the red cranes just hold
                a house of concrete slabs close
                           and turn
                lemon jackets rope and helmet
                cement trucks hazard and turn
                rivets press down then jump up
                chains strain patiently

                and nothing happens
                on the ground floor and pillars
                that weren’t there
                in the summer

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich
lemon wormhole: demolition
orange wormhole: demolition

 

demolition

 

 

 

                           demolition

                           in 1869
                           Woolwich New Road
                rough men built St. Peter’s Church and Presbytery
                           sandstone brick gothic
                           a hope for things to come

                           in 2011
                there is an Historic Woolwich plaque
                           in the pavement in front and opposite
                rough men in lemon jackets dig deep
                           into the ground making hills and rubble
                           with head-up red cranes reaching
                beautiful into the sky
                           and ground-level caterpillars
                yellow and orange bending to dig
                           un-rhythmically

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich
lemon wormhole: the Joker’s face
orange wormhole: The Batline Life-line

 

20000 / steps

 

 

 

                                              20000
                                              steps

                                too high windows of
                Blackheath to too small windows
                    of Woolwich and back

 

 

 

walking wormhole: dream / 150910

 

HA!

 

 

 

                HA!

                you thought you had me
                with your tiny patches
                           of dirty ground
                your broken fences your
                           dirty blue cardboard doors

                but I found true apricot
                           skies night-time
                           bridges and
                SUPERHEROES right in
                           your midst

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich
apricot wormhole: 1976
superhero wormhole: zero

 

Bonus Books

 

 

 

                                Bonus Books

                     at the end of the walk downhill
                     past walls and roofs and cooking smells
                     and waste land smells and spring day smells
                     and stacks of mags
                     and books and comics smell with
                     quietly deepening dates and numbers
                     and green sky covers with
                     costumed moral question stances

                     all to take back uphill
                     to the tree which reaches to the river
                     to survey the life of the whole city
                     under the future of the moon

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich
books wormhole: quoshed
Plumstead wormhole: coldstreet
Thames wormhole: crows on the / chimneys / of 40/38

 

he Had

 

 

 

                                                        he Had

                                                a coffee
                                  a heated sandwich
                                  a coconut iced bun
                                  a packet of crisps
                                  a bottle of water £8.89 and
                                  ‘can I have a knife and
                                  fork, please’ but

                                  he was on the phone
                                  all the time then
                                  the tray was cleared
                                  away

 

 

 

a street corner of … Woolwich
… part of: coffee shop poems