Barcelona

Barcelona

In Barcelona
a city of variableness
We drank in the Fairy Bar
and played leap the desperate
Carl was taller than the shower

the hostel was destitution
with shared showers
and the gay bookshop
opposite rich and serene

and we were both younger
than the shadows of danger
our innocence afoot
almost heroic almost

every menu was in pictures
it was a language
on an isolation ward
and we were carriers
of some kind

it had its grey demeanour
lying just outside the tourist tat
the zoo never opened
the animals had too much to do

even the fish in the harbour
hustled mercurially
and the cable cars
were unobtainably far

dying on the plane back
lungs reduced to sachets of breath
I couldn't even wave
to Carl in the travellers bar
again