####

walked through Walthamstow from her cafe
and cinemas with Egyptian pillars
deep in the maisonettes of Edwardian workers

the estate ended in concrete slopes
carving underneath access-roads
and looping round reservoirs, becoming footpaths

"Angie" I said "did you know this was a valley?"
She remembered its path through volatile islands
"It was wide and our picnic rug blew into it,

there was a picnic area on the low grassy banks,"
I said "It had green railings and was like some kind of
leisure centre?"

we stopped at the cafe by the mattress store
the warehouse deep in bramble was as long as a fallen tower

the long ramp to the monumental incinerator
homeless men gathered and moving in their camp underneath it
//