what you pick up from the mud are

sequins and beaded motifs

where they are thrown from

trimmings and edgings of the canal

views of concrete render    losing their grip

 

a stitch marks length and must be regular

like a small flag among towers at Canary Wharf

 

the best view in London is not the underpass

of sighs and security although

in my dream it was this glass stairway

to the light railway at the wrong station

 

between the columns only

the brightness of her sari

     and a child lifted on her shoulder

 

‘endless calls dep into the night warned me

that I had upset many important people

this was something else    more sinister

a kind of urban cyclone’

 

manufacture makes stitches too small to be visible

for gotten backdrops like roman roads

                                                and runways

 

the coronation flag in the shed shredded with age

these white threads are bothering me

these white threads scratched across

 

 

                                                             the red