– 99 –

The Air Castle

When you have gone I will winnow bus tickets
lay out my ID cards, count some change.
I will sit by a photo of the Matterhorn
and know, at this distance,
the appeal of a buoyant fortress.

For now you are offering me advice
and I am describing television programmes.
I mention the flooding of river valleys
the submerging of towns and telephone poles
the lean streams flattened for power.

Somewhere nearby the air castle is alive
with screams and the slap of legs.
Cautious parents shade their eyes,
distinguishing their own.
It's hard in the broad daylight.