Markus Lloyd
Continuity
Lawns are no different – in patches,
bald and sweaty as Isaac Hayes back in the Seventies –
in places, god-awful toupées of dried grass-cuttings –
they continue to keepsake tennis balls like sucking sweets –
are pinwheeled by rotary lines, that collapsed
and lopsided look like junior darts, astray,
but gigantic and rusting. It’s no different now.
A scurrying soccer match of ants on a concrete path.
The stiffness of an outside tap that whines and phews
before it chunters water against thirsting brickwork.
Exploded mortar, the blue flames of a buddleia
licking up at the sky from a chimney stack.
The air still penny chew with smells,
Parma violet, bubblegum and licorice.
The camouflage of a bitumen roof painted on
by the sunlight falling through leaves.
The ash of sunburnt borders.
Little redundant twists of wire here and there.
Disinterred Corgi toys, fire engines, Capris,
transporters, driven by gravel or balls of dirt.
Weeds few people can tell apart from what they planted.
The curd and whey of flesh exposed to brown,
going the colour of an egg custard. They are unaltered,
back-garden summers – the world simply changes about them.
Page(s) 46-47
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