A view from the top

Sights in the City:
72-74 Notting Hill Gate


Cold light
Upon my slice of the city-

A woman, clad in grey
For another business day-
On the corner to Pembridge Gardens
She stands smoking in the shade.

The flower-stand outside
The Underground is passed
By a steady cluster
Of transportees
In ascent
And descent.

Four young girls giggle
As they jump the barriers and
Cross the great divide,
While busses
Aligned
To Marble Arch, to Oxford,
Twickenham, Victoria
And World's End
Hustle
With the cabs and cars
In-between the traffic lights.

Outside of Crispins
Food and Wine
Street teams lie
In wait
For lonely pray-

And further down,
In the shadow
Of Campden Hill Tower-
The pigeon feeders
Remind passers-by
Of life's
Fragile
Nature-
When they bother to look.

High above
Clouds are gathering
For another charge
Of spring rain.

I tamp my cigar against the masonry
And watch the ashes dissolve in the wind.
It is like I have seen it happen
In countless films
And read
In numerous books.