Simon Curtis
Credences of a May Morning
I browse inside our stuffy hall
Through envelopes with tenant’s names.
Pharmacy Monthly’s come for Paul;
A post-card for Christine from James.
A folded Guardian for the Macks;
For Mrs. Bartok in Flat Three
An O.H.M.S. (rates or tax);
The pools for little ‘doc’ McGhee.
In the stairwell there’s a whiff
Of burnt toast mixed with bacon fat.
Distant plumbing snorts to life.
The fridge is purring in my flat.
Deposits, day by day, like
Tiny, nondescript crustacea here,
Compact into a general face.
Into the ‘Seventies, self-hoods blur,
Lest skill can work this limestone to
Rarest marble lustre, and disclose
Its unsuspected, crystal grain.
Though history by accretion grows,
Words may still conceive today
Anomalous, local rarity.
Page(s) 13
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