london is walking
feet on pavement
muscles toned, habits forming.
anything needed?
my feet get me there,
my feet
and my breath,
breathing in on a count of five,
exhaling on a count of six.
the sky
the sky is shaped by brick and planted trees
it catches you when you least expect it
am I on a hill? oh I’m on a hill!
OH
look at the sky!
suddenly, the sky for miles,
the horizon
winking at you
reminding you to shift focus
a bit wider, a bit wilder.
the tube isn’t really a tube
it’s a tunnel
with a train in it
and we pretend not to notice
even when our bodies are slammed against each other
we all become very good actors
or perhaps very bad ones
disappearing into our imaginations
escaping the present moment
praying for reality to fold on itself
so we can skip to the part
when we’re home.
london is layers
my new favorite word
PALIMPSEST
and no, i don’t know how to pronounce it.
imagine an ancient tablet with writing
but the writer has a new, better idea
and has run out of tablets
shit…
so they erase what’s currently written
and pour their new ideas over the old ones
the old ones never quite totally gone
that’s a palimpsest.
london is layers
london is a palimpsest.
old breathes alongside new
shiny Apple stores built within medieval walls
McDonalds at the foot of a castle from 1100
layers of road dating back to the romans
pieces of history casually hung on building plaques,
on our building
“Dame Ida Mann, Ophthalmologist, Lived Here.”
hi Ida.
hope you’re well
thanks for welcoming us into your home
we love the floors –
i think they might be the original floors
pretty amazing to think we’re walking
the same worn wooden boards
that you paced
seeding your next brilliant idea.
