London Town

(and a nod to Shakespeare's sonnets)

From ancient camps installed by waters deep,

Subsisting on the lifeblood's bounty by

Struggle, strife, survival lulled to sleep

Precarious lives suspect the end is nigh.

Defend the source against invading hordes,

Pyrrhic victories depress the populace,

Tribes evolve and peasants hail their Lords

Royal games begin, the Globe and palaces

Evolve from scabrous launch to dizzy heights,

Steel spine hardened by adversity and war,

Cultured urbane and dazzling human lights,

Edifices grand and stiff upper lip the core.

Thames' living fields pulse dance and sing
Hewn from battle, flourish... abiding

(David)

Quake

This morning a queasy tremble

Shuddered through our building:

An edifice anchored deep to bedrock

A tick burrowed in an animal's pelt

With some surprise, I swayed and swooned:

The power quite unsettling.

If this behemoth flicked like a flag in a breeze

What other jellied earth was shifting so?

I pondered the permanence

Of structures propped on shifting plates

Lives bedded on concrete and mortar

Fortunes fickle with steel and glass

Were we meant to worship the tactile

Or nestle deeper in thoughts and souls?

A love song, a thought caress sang softly to me

As the building quivered but failed to fall  

(David)