WINDOW

knees hunched, below the weather vanes

and cuppolas, I squat your broad sill:

my fourth floor frame of reference.

iron balustrades span the overlooked pilasters -

forgotten grandeur in mock Corinth curlicue.

an arm’s thrust to your weighty sash

gives air; reveals above sleepless lights,

our night sky, a view without stars.

the Thames laps plangent to banks of plane:

cloaked by leafy uniform, Ministries lie beyond.

apex of Millbank monolith, lidless,

a neon eye probes my pool of darkness;

questions the quietude.

iv.2000 (revised vi.2015)