It is a valorised thing –
according to Tesco’s
stuck clock –
it keeps all minutes
at ten past each hour
An upturned claw on top
of the brewery’s
brick chimney
sits finger-ready to grab
electrical strikes
as charged forklift trucks
whirl and rattle
quick around that
barrel-high yard
to meet loading outs
and unloading empties
where white smoke
from Jenner’s pipes
almost declare rogue
Popish thoughts
without bonfire boys
in that lazy town of
timeless martyrs
Men with beards –
each worth a tall story –
gather in cafes –
some sat high inside –
some sit outside
under chalked signs
How to tell such saints
and vagrants apart?
Hipsters and tramps
trading shit for kicks –
that stink of piss marks
their short-distance
The Ouse runs up and in
muddied and quick –
as if time’s rule
has been put in reverse
whilst so-special shops
sell out of bow ties
and string
to men and women
who prefer to spend
their Lewes Pound
– Keeping it local
they also voted for
One Nation Conservatism
If you stand still
for long enough
on Cliffe Bridge
the world and his wife
will pass you by –
ten times –
in both directions
On tidal urges
from her river’s mouth –
and in unseen particles
from a local incinerator –
all that Lewes renounces
does – in time – return
Pinned to https://www.placesofpoetry.org.uk/
