watch me walking down your streets
i’m in your veins
down there’s the duplex I lived in
9 years ago, deep in your belly,
under your skin, damp and cold
but carefree.
up there’s the terrace where I came back to you
and you punished me for leaving
squeezing me breathless with lungs clogged
dust and moulds choking me
and I sobbed for months on end.
in your footpaths are secret messages from me
some scrawled in wet cement
others carefully crafted in lino blocks and cast
into tiles laid side by side, nestled.
then angel st, the leafiness of your reserves, the parks
I slept in to protect you from the apartment blocks
which spread like influenza through you even now.
now here, embraced yet again by your high ceilings,
surrounded by friends.
I can’t afford you.
My relationship with you will be forever tenuous.