RICHES MAKE A DIFFERENCE
The bedroom’s gaze of glass fixes
on the Walthamstow view half a million
gets you these days blown clouds are blown in furls
like sails, and red as embers behind them are intense
shinings of unendurable sunrise.
Terraced houses, thickly sliced properties
are beginning to be lit in window-pocks
sewage is pouring down drains drinkable water
shuts off/on in clever taps power, high-voltage,
murmurs in fridges toasts food steams furiously
but is controlled, in radiators, kettles
Walthamstow schools
are becoming so yummy! (Shops aren’t so
dirt-cheap off-putting either) End-of-school-year
performance tickets start costing lots more
Clever children throw their soot- black shadows
against white screens
it means something the old won’t
live to see the watching media spotters will enable
future times to have new meanings replacing
those old intentions champagne socialists had, getting
much richer because they’re better at
discovering diamonds they’ve brought into E17(along with
their furniture and kids)
previous tickets were cheap so said don’t sweat
yourself with travelling this far there’s nothing much
to watch, nothing to justify 20 minutes cramming in
the rush hour
these days at nightfall white clusters of explosives
are starring darkness to the West immemorial marshes sink
beneath more dark redness sun’s setting brimming tanks
of Living Waters reflect sensible business proposals
thirsts go unslaked forever are unslakable.
first published in OWP 2015