Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

Hoppa – you will triumph!
Your destiny unfurls!

Hoppa – what loads you have carried!
I couldn’t have managed alone,
sharing the bitter grey morning
through wind, hail, sleet and rain
from Somers Town to King’s Cross
and the Cromer Street Cafe.

As camels bring food in Somalia,
for three long years you’ve provisioned
the Cromer Street Cafe clientele.
I load you until you’re overflowing,
seize your handle, and call: ‘Hooha’
and you, never lazy or sluggish,
rise like an eagle flapping its wings,
your wheels pad like the great bird’s feet
as it strives for speed to fly,
or the whirring tyres of an airliner
tilting its nose towards the sky.

You’re like the camel we call Hayin,
we trust it to carry the old folks and children,
its nature is honest, its spirit is willing
it carries a load without breakage or spilling.

Hoppa – you will triumph!
Your destiny unfurls!

What a cornucopia you deliver:
– coffee and meat and pancakes and pasta,
all the way from my flat where they’re prepared –
to the waiting, ravenous cafe customers,
who smile as your presence informs them:
‘See what riches I have brought you.
Say goodbye to all your hunger!’

There is no way I would exchange you
for Honda, Hyena, or Toyota.
You never pollute, no route defeats you,
no street is too narrow, no corner too sharp,
no hill too steep, no bus too hard to board,
you have no fear of parking tickets
and ignore congestion charges.
Could Boris hitch you to his bike
to execute an opening lap,
thus giving our Olympic Games
a smart distinction from Beijing?

As oil becomes a trickle
and vain expansion slows,
you are the role model needed
by our throwaway society.
You hover on the starting blocks,
your wheels and axles oiled.

Hoppa – you will triumph!
Your destiny unfurls!