Chris McCabe
west am
it’s not where you’re going
it’s just where you’ll be.
stay five minutes at the station door.
station designed to hold its place
in modernity circa 2030.
deadpan penultimate chapter,
near end knot on the silver-plated chain
of the jubilee line extension.
the tale that runs riches-to-rags
south, then a broke-thumb turn east
to a double-headed hammer end at stratford.
station built in blocks of glass.
galvanized chequerboard
giving light on wet days.
rush hour webs of people
black claws of shadows.
first sight at the door four shops.
off-licence, post-office, groceries.
dolphin fish & chip shop.
staff rearranged daily shop-to-shop
like a human card trick.
baskets of fruit rot in the grocery store -
bananas grin a freckled lip,
avocados bubble upturned to toads.
out of bread, no apples,
rows of tinned gungo peas, ackee, callaloo ...
snoop doggy dog booms through the afternoon
from the off-licence door.
west ham clock: adobe rectangular stump.
giant timex pieces tell the truth of the time
you’re in this place, butt-end
of phallic jokes
the night we returned
from under big ben,
the moment’s majesty dead,
back to the flat cold & bothered by it.
severed heart of london underground
looks down on the stray children
of the shops -
& nothing changes hardly,
only when we returned
past midnight that christmas holiday
hungover & top-heavy with luggage
the h in the red neon west am
was at last unbroken.
Page(s) 25
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The