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they're attaching
a new section
to the train
which is behaving
with exemplary patience
& still has one eye closed
a bit of buzzing
then several
barely noticeable
stretches & the city
starts moving backwards
neighbours eat ham rolls
& a sack of crisps
which really needs
a ticket of its own
not so much crisps in fact
as wotsits or something
more adventurous that
stinks of chlorinated
cottage cheese or
innovative bleach
& that acrid small-chunk
sandwich pickle in his lap
will take some skilled removal
have a tomato
the rhythms are irregular
because of all these
scratches on the tracks
& swaying in the slipstream
of autumn branches look
a herd of partridges
runs across our field of vision
two feet off the ground
thanks for that
our ears close as tunnels
squash our inner cardboard boxes
leave them out on Tuesdays
where it's narrowing
to sunny hawthorn fringes
& here comes the dessert
I thought of Wasserkäfer's lines
when she said
she wanted to make love
among the olives
I didn't know
she meant the trees
you're never alone with a wet wipe
though certain stains augment
the finished picture
harmonise the glow
Cambridge, 24th September 2017