Anne Ryland
Berlin
The arms of a maze of cranes
swivel over a sky so blue and still
it might snap without warning,
while a city paces with the air of a man
before a blind date.
Silent blackened buildings,
some still pockmarked from the war,
and sullen blocks cluster for renovation.
The cathedrals are being cleaned thoroughly.
The tube train slides past mounds of earth,
emerges in a giant dusty crater,
once the heart where hate churned and thickened.
They’re untangling old foundations,
not always, it’s said, in public.
By the turn of the century
the city will be finished,
both sides of its face slotted in place,
rehearsing a tight smile.
The ugly seam will linger on,
a flashy slab of Wall,
now an artefact beyond the tidy avenue
the empty benches of the park
in no man’s land
an old watchtower
nagging like a bad tooth
the hand-made cross by the River Spree
‘Unknown girl aged 12’
longer than a taste in the mouth after a long night.
Page(s) 36
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