In the Twilight of English Literature –
Scattering its casket in confetti
Critic-brides undead
Entrain to Transylvania
To villages of Gifted Children
Who punch their tickets in sharp tiny teeth –
Publishers are redundant
What is left but to outlive them?
Any carotid artery
May prove a boon against a ‘night starvation’
Art Collecting magnates out late for a ‘vape’
Have a musty brandy library flavour
London closes its bazaars –
Homeward tends the genius
With nothing in the larder
‘Clack’ the meter’s out and takes his lights
So street-ward goes in search of dissipation
A winter’s night of brown mist from the River –
Limehouse first or Shepherds Market shadow?
‘Might I share your hansom cab old man?
Hansom is as hansom does!’
His jocular banality appals –
You give his scarf a twist
Then sink your jaws
Sheer poetry…
The white noise of the stars
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
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