alexandra park

This was previously touted as Victoria Park which was the wrong historic royal. They do all kind of blur into one. Anyway the title's been corrected now. If you nip down Princess Road in Manchester you can visit the place yourself. To avoid disappointment please bear in mind that most of this poem is fiction or just plain wrong.

alexandra park

it's always more intricate the other side of the road
plaster mouldings fences fresh paint.
blue plastic skin off windowframes in construction
thin skin flapping translucent. newbuild already ancient
corals die and calcify. stand too long
the sediment will fix you at the corner. fossils on your lips
and belly lungfish prints and shells. marker
drawing of a cock and come-splashes on your chest fingers
broken off. walk in the park with the mist and the dogpeople
pigeons limp where the white bread moulds. roll up
your heart in newspaper shreds and lower it into
the boating lake. you won't need it till your autopsy measured
and weighed. elling woman tollund man
tannin black from the filthy teas they used
to preserve you. rain and leaf mulch. civil servants
you thought were stones or crumpled paper unfolded
came creeping out of a disused toilet. and under
the birdsong morning showers and traffic no one heard
a thing. on this spot in 1785 britain's
first serial killer was hanged.

matt dalby
22dec6-3jan7