What were you thinking?

The rib cages of sunken barges

Living life on another level, 
drinking coke from an old milk bottle.
Sucking the city scent in through this nose,
on the edge of the Thames,
clearing my throat. Of all of this. 

The stench of uninvited disappointment, 
floats in her on augurious currents. 
Ripping the bridge pier’s block-work from
where it stands on once 
hard laboured ground.  

Over slaughterhouse slit necked cattle,
broken clay pipes, smashed jaw rattles,
wooden docks, money-lender charges,
the rib cages of sunken barges,
to here now.

Escaping with momentary distractions 
in between mistrusted retractions 
where we forget to hurt and can’t recall 
what brought us here, changing all 
of what has gone before.

The tide has flowed out back to sea 
and left the scene set on this shore, this city beach,  
the sand between our toes unclinging.
And you, and you,
what were you thinking?

I’ll take this moment out of time 
and pocket it for another rhyme. 
I cannot stay here in this peaceful moment,
the rising tide will up
and undertow me.

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North Bank, River Thames, London 2019. Nikon d750

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