Abreast the Thames river strong,
On which boats form a throng
There is a city known to me.  
A city that's yet to be free.

Pulsing streets, and royal treats
Do the senses overwhelm, But I must entreat:
Who is it, in this city, at the helm?

Is it the people, bright and cordial with which the power reigns?
Or is it the river, majestically flowing, because she never wanes?
Is it he who sits in gaudy parliament seat with subsidized meat?
Or is it the crown who owns every meter and every beat of every poet and every street?
The church? Nay, there are no need for tithes, as the tides, the VAT is high.

The dark beauty rumbles through, not standing, she waves goodbye.
She bellows through London, intrinsically free.
Her Majesty seeks her union with the Sea.

Unbridled by pence and pound,
Thames continues down, down, down.
In London, though quite the town, she flows Eastward bound,
For she will not compete for her rightful crown.

for RFG


You told me of your love for London
and I, of mine for Jerusalem.
And we speak of our second homes
and our first loves,
and how those memories
should be left for the archaeologists,
and how we must for the time being
carefully avoid the subject
each of the other
like diplomats
in London or Jerusalem
busily seeking
positive signs,
in one and the other
or those things
we love elsewhere
and wish we could have
here at home.

This morning I was filled with an inconsolable hurt
And I noticed everything on my way to work…
The man in the grey coat reading his kindle
The blonde lady telling her friend about how she was newly single
I saw the small schoolboy leap on the train
I could tell he didn’t want to be late for school again
I became aware of the fed up look on the train drivers faces
They looked as though they were exhausted of coming to these places
I observed a handsome young man give the old lady a seat
Everyone smiled and thought, isn’t he sweet.
I grimaced when the barrier decided to trap the man in the suit
He cried and complained that he should have taken a different route.
I noticed everyone but nobody noticed me…
Because the pain I felt made me as still as can be…