twinned towers

This is, for me, a rare sally into contemporary matters; this is not 'misery tourism' I was a youth pastor by Grenfell (mid-seventies) and the tragedy affected me deeply. 

twinned towers

 

high over Mumbai

on Malabar Hill

a mist shrouded

silent tower stands

 

a shrine

where carrion birds

flock to feed

on rotting corpses

of dignitaries

and dalits alike

 

a feast for ravening beaks

to soar high in eagles’ talons

or become flesh of vultures’ flesh

 

a tower of silence stands over London W10;

a cenotaph for unknown souls,

the world in miniature,

 

the poor and poorer

children, fathers, aged mothers

council tenants, undocumented ‘others’

 

collaterals of a theology

where avarice is king

and profit the deity
 

the charred remains

of the desperate for salvation

who flapped despairing sheets

from cyanide-fume windows

before flash-brazing fire

carbonised them inseparable

from charity glad rags

Poundshop plastic kitchenware

cheap carpets, cheese-plants,

beds, bookcases, bibles,

and fifty-inch BrightHouse

flat screen televisions

 

await the sniff of spaniel noses

to be found, big-toe tagged

zipped in body bags 

taken down

to be laid in earth

 

to turn into earth