Rapid Response

1

A red-brick edifice

gang-blocks the sky.

            The Square.
            The statues.

2

Lilliputian minds loiter

on hookers’ nights out.

3

Reflections

ripple.              A flash

of significance

            responds rapidly.

The wet night

is crammed
          into gutters.

The wet night

cries                self
cries
                       I AM.

4

I soak in the whirlpool

of a city’s tear gland –

white camellias

            levitate.

The Square      is alive

with skeletons of words

solitary hunters
painted green.

5

The cold is in the water
               is in the pond
                   in the silence

of a frog.

I live amongst thieves

            amongst shrubs.

I shoot at stars

            tear the fur off
nocturnal revolutionaries.

            In shop windows

parties are in full swing.

A dawn chorus

makes it

by lying on top of another.

I tell lies          like a clock.

I tell clocks to turn out
their lights.

©Iain Britton