was it shit or was it snow - excrement
lies on the bridge that’s taken a week
to wear down to a scab on the pavement-
locals avoid what the homeless wreaked
who live beneath the arches - misery
is a mound that dies communicably
sole to sole as the derisory
turd holds out ineradicably
yet it was human and even the dogs
can smell wretchedness - eternity glimpsed
from these piers on oblivion might clog
the path a while but how can it be rinsed
shit or snow from the mind of the addict
and from the despair of a mystic
Oxford
17 February 2018
I am sorry to have to write on the theme of ordure, but a poet has to respond to how the world really is, and I have witnessed something on the bridge by St Frideswide’s Church on Botley which I never thought was possible. Speaking of which, the filth on that road on the morning of the 18th was incredible. Yet this is a middle class part of Oxford. It’s the bridges and the proximity to town and the milder late winter weather that bring this out.