Simon Wood
Once upon a Market Day
A shadow steeple slants across the square.
Our children help the traders pack away
in rainbow mud and richly tainted air,
while pigs devour the leavings of the day,
discarded offal, remnants of the catch.
A lurid sunset stains cocoons of thatch,
and gables where the guildsmen dine in state
by blazing fires on haunch and syllabub.
No roof for beggars, or inebriates
who stagger aimlessly from pub to pub,
but other doors are opening in town
when shutters close, and burghers settle down.
A single lantern lights the flooded beck.
Love Lane is underwater; bubbles rise.
The bridge is little better than a wreck -
one trip, one slip, and off to Paradise.
Tom Ferryman’s asleep; his punt’s adrift
as grinning girls begin an early shift.
The prophet shouts and waves his bowl, but sex
is far more in demand than second sight.
‘Remember me, when gas replaces wax,
and metal floats, and men discover flight!’
Who cares about the next five hundred years?
My future’s down the yard and up the stairs.
Page(s) 67
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