20 : 20 VISION

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on the wooden seat
blotched with historicity
green with horizontal lines
disguising continuity of cement
a trio of lions
one vagrant tower
of changeable abstraction
ascents to our modernity
amidst lifeless, listless sound
vastly shapeless
intellectually anorexic
amphitheatre of the sods
under Canopus illuminati
an exhibition framed
rectangled grouted lines
you should not step on
not far from famed paintings
the universal sods decree
are clearly defined
epitaphs to humankind

in fading light
they gather
starlings in hand me downs
without intrinsic oily lustre
but plastic bags
that keep your feet dry
in driving rain
while old biddy wraps
her neck and ears
in chartreuse scarf
she found in Russell Square
with a Liberty tag
when it was clean
they talk to gather
seemingly all addressed
postcoded asperges
on uniquely common ground
words do not often collide
nor dovetail discreetly
or centre even minisculely

George Orwell
overall much maligned
arrives to write as poet
himself sat down
upon the bench
in presence and on pretext
of so much artistic merit
he proffers sense of judgement
above levels of sentiment
imagined well
old biddy’s shawl
could decorate
King’s wife in Scottish play
Act 1 Scene 7
beneath the August light
reprise, reprieve
this repertory company
sparks into contemporary flow
upon hazy, nighttime gravel boards
soft floor-lights glow

we listen though
as strangers
their dialogue increase
George attempts monopoly
building on the reds
he can charge double now
they are sat comfortably
on park-bench beds
philosophers and laureates
bandleaders
a clergyman’s daughter
the people’s voices speak
of that historicity
of a wooden bench
soap boxes in Green park
above a mile away
life is art and art was free
before they took
those green lines away
Mickey Spillane, Dorris Lessing
Steinbeck maginations
of a chartreuse scarf!

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©EDENBRAYTODAY12.07.2024