Near the YHA St. Paul’s

After ‘Mack and Mabel’
(he wouldn’t give her roses)
I took the
Whistling, chortling, shooting
Kraken to St. Paul’s

Rubber on cobbles
Rain came down. Woman
hugged her darkened skin
Man opened brolly. Whoop.
Shops locked, poured light.
Got out black steel and canvas
at last. 4.95 from Tesco
Hardy, I hoped.

Braced against
Gusts. Crossed little road. Almost
Turned corner to my
Gargoyled dorm
Then

At night She glows
silent and green. In rain
She floats above gliding
Cabscarabs gleaming
Agate, cat’s eye, topaz

Stroked by vapours
The marble lifts
As sheer tissue.
Beneath, coolly, hugely,
Flesh wobbles, feminine.

Want. My black shelter
lit upon the pavement like a
Shiny fowl. Scrambling
after, people bobbed by
In nodding silence.

In the cold I held
My hands to my heart and
Aperture drank of a wetness,
A green quiet, a deepening glow. |