1. SEA CHEST
gran had her ghost story
her apparition
at the end of the bed
a woman
hovering
on
grandpas sea chest
she
only
aired
it
once or twice
and i was sceptical
cos me id talk about it all the time
and anyway
i was more interested
in the sea chest
in my childs mind
there was d day in there
dunkirk
u boats
sharks off the n african coast
and a liberated pistol
i could smuggle home
2. SMALL TOWN
small town
shut cinema
was pool
is now bingo
evacuated farm buildings
sit in the scraps
the waterworks so thoroughly vandalised
they
shut
them
down
conrad lived here for 20 minutes
pepys hung out in the worlds end
revolting peasants
lit the marsh beacons
the queen mother
came to visit all the oil
shook my pas hand
and the school fire
well the police asked me about that
art class 1985
when i was drawing a man
with flames for a beard
still theres forest
silent woods
rolling uphill
you could be an animal there
and if you squint
from up top
you can see
londons jigsaw skyline
like a grey
5B smudge
pocked with fragmented pencil lead
3. CATS
we saw five cats
just out walking
round the crescent
under a 5pm drama sky
we said hi to one
rubbed his neck
he sat on the kerbstone
where old uncle bulgaria
used to potter
in his steptoe yard
one was in a bungalow window
next door to where
that tv lady grew up
she added a 'van' to her common name
and
left
for the green rooms
and the silver lights
he watched us like a border guard
one played in a cardboard mountain
left over from flatpacks
piled out by the wheelie bins
one was spread out on front garden cement
like he fell out the sky
landed by plants looked like froth
and a window dog
behind him
was barking in double glazed silence
another one strolled by
like some victorian
perambulating
taking the air
before aperitifs
and
back home
theres ours
still on the same pillow
no intention of moving
till
his
food and shit and shot 8.30 pm
and i thought
where were the people
in this fuckburg town?
can hear them plenty enough at night
thats for sure
sounds like the monaco F1
or the isle of wight TT
sometimes
its oxford freaking circus out there
when
we
are
not looking
SOE pistol, welrod, from ww2nation.com
