north - even more

the

site of a former

industrial

estate

collecting hills

of earth

graded stone

pulverised

concrete.

computers running

slowly.

sun

in the window

leans on your back

pushes you

forward.

cock and balls

drawn

on a supermarket's

external wall

seems

to have started

out

as a pair of breasts.

crowded gallery.

joggers.

retirement sale

all stock

must go.

half a cd

in the road

clear plastic

scratched.

magpie lands

on eighth floor

window ledge

maybe three

centimetres wide hops

feet

tap

tap

then jumps and lifts

up from sight.

by the time they got home

the flowers

never stood straight

stems floppy

but the flower

heads

lasted.

cats meows

and leaps

onto the wall

between two tiny

front yards.

Just for your curiosity the two main texts behind north are Andrei Tarkovsky's Mirror and the Jonathan Meades series first broadcast on BBC Four last year Magnetic North. There are other influences in there, none of them central to what I'm trying to achieve in the same way, but all worth your attention and time: Allen Fisher Leans, J H Prynne Poems, Richard Barrett the rushes, and Derek Jarman The Garden.