Elephant and Castle


What if an apocalypse happened and no one noticed?
The elm trees still sighed above the bus-stop tops,
Tattered and green in front of the blocks as the buses roared angrily,

Red down the Walworth road.

What if the mall continued to gleam,
A solid brick dream where I broke up a crowd of kids fighting;
Security guards smoking to radio static
As angry muscles kicked against my hands.

What if the trains still flicked knife-clean,
Valley makers through a jungle of nature’s assertions;
The back streets still sung late at night
And no one noticed the world ending

As over and under the bridges thundering,
The pigeons flew, gouging their own lumpen unity
From the sky.


* Ted Targett likes writing poetry because it doesn't give a damn about the rules: something he once knew but has largely taken an extended sabbatical from. He usually writes about cities. Probably because they represent a compelling hybrid of total order and total anarchy. Sometimes he writes about his young family, who seem to largely opt for the latter.