Detrius

the soft able laughter of children
languished around the base
fluffy seawater milling about greened dead trunk
they built the pier so many years ago
and when it burnt logs floated on
the filthy channel grease painted swimmers protect
their health despite the blinding vapour
the sheets of crippling rains fall
and the children stare at the rushing future
the wooden shoes the man gave them
wanted to walk but instead they held them
high above the water and ran for their dear lives
the swans panic chorus threw dust into that afternoon
the lake surface quietly broke into rippling
texture knitted with a precise logo-rhythmic touch
a latent mixture of desire and distrust
erupts with candy selling sold down river gone
water dried and evolution paused while we bake
fruit cake play patty cake in the garden
the summer we spent looking for snakes
the castle in the cloudy day after the knights were slain
the cardboard box burnt with treasure map x spot marks
the slow withdrawal started as the slow worm resigned itself
to the pit we placed it in, inspecting the wall for chinks
the castle placed itself with comfort in a body of clouds
planned by the painters of English countryside five hundred
years since the scars on the legs of schoolboys in summer
the painted cottage and replanted sea creatures and rocks
we seek out that truth, it was never really there
the burner and the old tin sink accepted the compounds
mixed number 6 to number 8 stained the Thames you must
not tell anyone where to find going to hide the boxes
and the taste of Victorian dust was familiar
the overtones of absence lingering upon a future
when it would be swept under old lino
broken at the corner
the rubbish bin with the detrius of the doctors and dentists
the hyperdermics and calipers floated and dug in on the beaches
of normandy the great invasion of the gilded crown of iron
the resilience of Bodacea inscribed here
the actors and tailors in the city cried
as coins rolled down broken roads and into gutters
the children knew they could not swallow
and always wanted to play the villain